http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/Database+Design/62386/

Here the article I have been looking for.

>>If you can avoid this I would. There are times things like this are necessary, but you would

typically prefer to avoid them.

How would I avoid them? Could I have...

Yes I did mix up my descriptions as you noticed. Your terms make a lot more sense.

You concerns are definitely valid. How much data? A thousand rows of current...

You could try to import each file into a one column staging table. Then write a select against the table to exclude rows, you will probably need to use LIKE....

Are you replacing a process that is based on paper forms? If so, collect examples of all the existing forms.

Your expected results and ColdCoffee's are very similar.

Your results:

Day 1st shift 2nd Shift 3rd Shift

3/1 3 1 1

3/2 2 1 0

3/3 0 0 0

Cold Coffee's:

DayNumberFirstShiftEventCountMiddleShiftEventCountLateShiftEventCount

Day 1360

Day 2360

Day 3361

Why don't you...

Actually the late, middle and early sample data was not from the original poster. I was just trying to use my intuitive powers to provide some code that might be...

All depends on the consistency of your data.

I would import into a one coumn statging table.

Then update the data. This is really ugly, but it works.

CREATE TABLE TEST

(

String ...

Are you going to have data like this?

Ann Arbor MIMICHIGAN 48103 20080109

In this case the spaces are not really delimiting your fields.

If this is the case then the first...

Does this help?

CREATE TABLE Shifts

(

ShiftStart datetime

)

INSERT INTO Shifts

SELECT '2011-02-01 01:10:00.000' UNION

SELECT '2011-02-01 01:20:00.000' UNION

SELECT '2011-02-01 01:30:00.000' UNION

SELECT '2011-02-01 13:10:00.000' UNION

SELECT '2011-02-01 13:20:00.000' UNION

SELECT '2011-02-01 13:30:00.000' UNION

SELECT '2011-02-01 13:40:00.000' UNION

SELECT...

Do you want a count of each shift?

You have not provided a table structure, sample data and expected results. If you did we wouldn't have to guess. Here's a guess.

This...

Thanks, that looks good. I had never used PIVOT before.

Since you don't have a DBA, I have to ask this. Are you comforatable with your backup and disaster recovery processes?

I faced a similar issue recently and used a varchar field of a length that I though would accommodate all my results. I did have some reservations about this.

In my...

Yes, the granularity question is key. Even if you are stamping your datetime field with getdate() then its possible though unlikely you could get duplicates.

It sound like you have...