Having an aversion to wild card columns from the word go in any code rather than a quick query i have always been on the lookout for shortcuts for...

You need to specify how you want to keep TID unique.

Bsically this comes down do a definition of the values in the othe columns to exclude ot limit.

For example...

The first is, do you really need to be formatting dates at the SQL Server level? A lot of the time, this is best left to the application or reporting...

Aye, those results are all distinct if only because the timestamp is different in every one.

DISTINCT merges rows were all columns are identical so adding a timestamp will often make...

Bob, you are an example to us all with your attention to detail and eeking the last milisecond per year out of database solutions.

I've considered myself pretty good at SQL...

In this example, with the Tally table I would now generate my test data using

INSERT @myTable

SELECTDATEADD(mi,30 * N, @startDate),'ABC',N+50,N

FROM dbo.Tally

WHERE N < 365 * 96 --assuming 2 entries a day...

OK, so your total cost is 6-8 times faster than mine.

Tally table example would be great. PM me since we have already crowded this topic somewhat.

Thought I'd add this...

But yeah, your total time is 6-8 times faster than mine

Aye, when you replied I was in the middle of starting comparrisons myself but my "server" is a single CPU dual core mini Dell also running sharepoint and exchange as...

Not at all. I have found myself mightily impressed with 2k5s CTE, ROW_NUMBER/RANK/NTILE, PIVOT/UNPIVOT functionality and am basically using interesting problems on forums like this as training excercises on how...

As above I have created a sample table variable to use as an example. The following methos uses Common Table Expression and seems to work well

--Populate a test table with...

Id's need screen shots of both Report Parameters and the script and Parameters tab for the dataset to be sure but I'd guess that you have defined the parameters for...

Well, thinking about it, have you tried making an SSIS import task for it so that you can specify datatypes for the column?

Have a play with the Import Data from...

OK, I have had this where I have no control over the data format I am receiving.

In the end I had to import the thing as a single text row...

Flat files are a right pain in the preverbial but one issue here is that I can see is that if you are quote identifying then all columns in all...