trubolatta wrote:

My alternative is simply not to insert duplicate records in the production database in the first place [sample code follows] ...

Yes, this is a nice method. Very clean, very elegant.

But then again, my solution doesn't offer that delicious complexity some seem to relish or use the whiz-bang new features of SQL Server. To each his own.

As a developer, I always prefer the KISS approach, and your example certainly offers that. Thank you for posting an alternative.