Re: Situation 6

I don't get the use of variables and table type variables for what is essentially a set-based validation:

IF EXISTS (

  SELECT external_item_cd

  FROM inserted

  WHERE external_item_cd IS NOT...

In BOL, type "triggers" in the Index, and open the section titled "inserted tables":

Using the inserted and deleted Tables

Two special tables are used in trigger statements: the deleted...

Supply a column list, for all columns excluding the identity column. Supply the matching column list in the Select. This is a best practice anyway, and is something you should...

>> i can't get around the error. incorrect syntax.

What's the error you get ? What's your DB compatibility level set at ? What's the exact SQL you're running that...

>>Does setting the FF to 100% mean "append only?"

No, it means that each index page (which for a clustered index also means data page) is completely full, with no...

>>I get the feeling it would be more optimal to copy the appropriate tables to the SQL Server Database overnight.

Definitely compare/benchmark both options, but in our data warehousing environment where...

You could attempt to find out what the app is sending by finding the process id it has connected with and executing:

dbcc inputbuffer(spid)

... to get the last SQL statement sent...

>>A number of the queries I need to write will require joins from a Database on a SQL Server to a Database on the SQL Base Server!

Cross platform joins are...

How are you calling this from VB ? Are you trying to open a recordset on the result, are you exec'ing an 'INSERT ....' SQL statement, or calling a stored...

So, really, you need to join four tables, 1 which gives you the entire set of possible prids, left joined to the other 3. You construct the 4th table as...

What exactly is being locked ? Which table ? What does sp_lock and sp_who2 show you in terms of locking & blocking.

Is it a #temp table, or a ##temp table...

Read BOL on CHARINDEX(), SUBSTRING() and REVERSE().

You're going to be CHARINDEX()'ing on space characters. For LastName, you're going to be REVERSE()'ing the string, finding the 1st space, stripping the leading...

This is a flaw in DTS. It's a chicken & egg situation - reading configuration from a table requires a connection. However, you need the connection set to the correct...

Is it a true Truncate, or are you using DELETE ?

IS NULL 

not = NULL

Using Left Joined columns in the WHERE clause converts the Join to an Inner join. An Inner Join, combined with the error of using "= Null"...