I wholeheartedly agree Frank. I posted my code because it does do a count, albiet that count is for each row in a table.  We would download data from another...

Go to your Tools ---> Options and start playing with those settings.  I have my machine set that way because once I get into the billions of $, I cannot...

I think you may want to be more specific in your question.  Query Analyzer is basically a notepad interface in which you make your own code to run.  There are...

I have not had an issue with this altering data.  It will alter the table though and could have profound effects on existing inserts, etc..., as well as select statements...

This may be overkill for your needs, but you can always drop out the code you do not need. 

SET NOCOUNT ON

IF EXISTS( SELECT * FROM dbo.sysobjects WHERE id...

We have just migrated to version 9 and they will not give us support.  They are telling us to migrate to 11  - it...

Darn good question!!! 

BOL states:

@local_variable

Is the name of a variable of any type except cursor, text, ntext, or image. Variable names must begin with one at sign (@). Variable names must...

Using Frank and Nick M's approach, I got this....  [ Thanks guys!    ]

I changed some of the data to verify it will...

You should be able to try my approach with the addition of the following: 

            INSERT INTO #OutPut

            SELECT TOP 2 acct_number, idx, stage

            FROM #u_external_requests

            WHERE...

So the top 2 isn't the issue?  The stage of the record is the defining field?  In other words, if an account is in stage 5, 6, or 7, you...

Or you could try the following: 

CREATE TABLE #TblContacts( ContactID int,

                                    FullName varchar(25),

                                    Company varchar(25),

                                    Address varchar(25))

CREATE TABLE #TblAgenda( AgendaID int,

                                    AgendaItem varchar(25),

                                    ProposedBy...

I see how the JOIN works with your code, but the original data had no date to use.  If idx or stage had business rules similar to date, (i.e., like...

I use CHAR(13) all the time.  Can you show us and example of your output? 

Thanks - that is odd....

Alright.  I may be going around the barn to get to the horse, (or however the saying goes), but this seems to work.  Hopefully, someone will figure out a more...