What recovery model do you use? If it is set to simple, I think you have just learned the hard way, why a good backup strategy is vital. Do you...

Actually I think, it will get very hard to find unbiased information. Too much in such discussions depends solely on personal preferences. And such discussion are very likely to get...

Have a look at INSERT INTO...SELECT in BOL. If the PK has the IDENTITY property defined on the column, you might need to use SET IDENTITY_INSERT ON, which is also...

Why do you think there is anything wrong with the statement?

What happens when you explicitely CAST your date as DATETIMES?

Or when you write WHERE... >= '20041214'....?

Scott,

thanks for your thoughts.

If I read you right, I suspect a lot of mainframers here would love to get your knowledge

Here is a really nice explanation from Itzik Ben-Gan on the difference between (NOT) IN and EXISTS:

http://groups.google.de/groups?hl=de&lr=&selm=uFffAFPaBHA.1900%40tkmsftngp04&rnum=2

IMHO, when you can restate your query to using JOINs, you should do...

Oh Dale, where would we be here, without your knowledge of MSDN. I'll have them printed tomorrow.

Hm, wasn't aware that you're also looking for books on the theory behind. For this topic, you might want to google for books by Jim Melton, Chris Date et al....

You didn't mention how large that file is that you want to import.

ISNULL or the ANSI equivalent COALESCE might help you.

You've already checked available space on your drives?

What is the size of that file?

Do a search in the script section here. You should find something useful.

If this Wrox book is that by Louis Davidson, I would have a close look at in the book shop first. One might think different on it.

For me, I...

Hm, at first I thought I'd only keep this app alive and running. Hm, now I think I use it as a playground to study best practises. Once again, thanks...