Here's a start:

declare @test-2 varchar(20),

    @c char(1),

    @numstr varchar(20)

select @test-2 = '123 Add7ress 56',

    @numstr = ''

while len(@test) > 0

begin

  select @c = Left(@test,1)

  if ISNUMERIC(@c) = 1

    select...

SELECT @RetVal =  ReviewBy

FROM dbo.review

WHERE ItemID = @ItemID

ORDER BY ReviewBy DESC

try this:

set rowcount 1

select field-item, cost, field-effective-date

from MyTable

where field-item = '123'

ORDER BY field-effective-date DESC

--or--

select TOP 1 field-item, cost, field-effective-date

from MyTable

where field-item = '123'

ORDER BY field-effective-date DESC

if the email column in tContact is a nullable column and those entries are null, this is the expected result.

Try this:

select q.email, c.email

from t_Quote q

LEFT OUTER JOIN t_contact c

on...

Well not quite...

BETWEEN '2006-05-01 00:00:00.000' AND '2006-05-01 11:59:59.000'

would only get you until a minute before lunch (depending on your date format and work schedule, that is...).

You wouldn't get any results, unless you had an entry for exactly midnight.  To put it in terms of simple math, that's the same as asking for values between 1...

One note: building on Wayne's example, you probably want to make @temp3 varchar(20) - the sum of the length of @temp1 and @temp2.

I think it also depends upon how the "perks" are arranged.  I worked for a cooperative for a few years and we got quite a bit of "perks".  This was...

Away from SQL, I'm managing a household with 3-5 adults, 9 chihuahuas (http://s2.photobucket.com/albums/y36/pdianne/Puppies/) and a Timneh African Gray parrot (http://s2.photobucket.com/albums/y36/pdianne/PDG/).  Other than that I am involved with various social and political organizations.

Then your first step is to identify which of those queries are the worst-performing ones.  Take a look here for some hints onthat:

http://www.sql-server-performance.com/sql_server_performance_audit10.asp

Plug the SQL into query analyzer and look at the query plan.

Post the SQL (and DDL) here and let us take a look.

Do you want it by distinct account numbers or by the distinct substring?  For the former go with Terry's solution.  For the latter, change the Group by to:

Group by substring(ad.account_number,1,2)

Then there's QUOTENAME()

see: http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms176114(SQL.90).aspx

for reference.

Look at the query plans.  Run some index tuning traces. 

That's truly the only way to know what is causing the performance hit.

Have a look at this: http://blogs.msdn.com/sqlcat/archive/2006/02/13/531339.aspx

Duplicate indexes...

Is it just me, or does the question (especially the first part) make no sense?