Much depends on how you generate the surrogate keys. If you are using Sql Server Identity property on the dimension table, you have no choice really but to load the...

The query itelf doesn't make sense.

If you LEFT JOIN to a table, then apply a WHERE clause to that table, you effectively convert it to an INNER join.

Also, you are...

Select 2/0

Server: Msg 8134, Level 16, State 1, Line 2

Divide by zero error encountered.

Note the Level 16 - too high to be trappable.

You need to create a Lookup.

The SQL in the lookup will be:

SELECT dbo.StrToAsc(?)

'?' is a parameter placeholder, that will take the value passed in from your VBScript code. You invoke...

>>4. N -- How many messages per source/type

If N is a variable parameter, you're going to have additional problems above the performance issue, namely that you can't use a variable...

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;256194

So ... this isn't a SQL Server problem then ? It's a problem with your server's operating system ?

>> the ID is a dbo.  This same ID is the SQL Server Agent Proxy. 

Which account does your SQL Agent run under ? (Look in services and verify). This is...

You mean all the registration entries have disappeared from Enterprise Manager ? Or something else ?

Also, your requirements didn't mention what to return in the above example for a customer who subscribes to, say, magazines 1, 3 and 4 ?

If you pass 1 & 3,...

The answer is usually "it depends".

What sort of application is the database for ? An OLTP app with many ins/upd/del operations, or a data warehouse/datamart type app used for reporting...

Repeating multiple EXISTS for a large number of potential parameters isn't really necessary if you know the number of magazine parameters passed in. All you need to do is count...

A cursor will be horrible for performance and is not required.

You need to make your final INSERT set-based, and include all the derivations in the SELECT. Don't have time to...

You can improve performance by performing the UPDATE first and getting rid of the IF EXISTS. The UPDATE takes the place of the EXISTS because it only updates if the...

The root cause of the slowness are the sub-selects within the Select. These need to be evaluated for each row in the outer resultset, which usually gives horrible performance.

You need...