Thanks! That's what I was missing. Although I can't right now think of an example where I'd want Xact_abort set to OFF.

I am really struggling with implementing error handling...

Thanks much, I'll proceed along with Try--Catch instead.

Can you elaborate on which kinds of errors I would expect to be able to trap using @@error, and which ones I wouldn't? That is, what's the exact definition...

Thanks for all of your help. The problem was (as Lamprey13 suggested) duplicate PK's in my incoming data.

Ugh, even with the sub-query solution, it still isn't working as expected. I'm trying this, as suggested (greatly simplified from the full sql)

To debug, I've commented out the INSERT part...

Yeah, I've been dealing with this for 20 years, and I long ago gave up beating my head against the wall. This is why I have developed the system that...

SHort answer: Lamprey13, I've gone with your subquery solution.

Longer answer:

ksullivan, don't want to delete the PK constraint.

Grant, I can't use the TOP 1 option because the issue is...

In the infamous words of Rosanne Rosannadanna, "Never mind...."

The problem was simply that primary key Panels$ID and unique index "Panels$primarykey" are indeed two separate entities, and the 2nd one was...

Primary key is there, that's not the issue. I know how to fix it. I'm just curious as to why it's happening, because as Grant said "Although I thought that...

Here is the reply I got from my IT department:

"SQL 2005 x64 does not support the Jet driver needed to make the link server connection you are requesting. Therefore...

At last I have figured it out!

I changed from:

exec sp_executesql @strSQL, @strParTable

To:

exec sp_executesql @strSQL

So my take on this is that I can only pass where-clause-type variables as parameters...

I copied your code into my db and did nothing but uncomment the exec statement. (Oh, and add a missing ")" at the end after par2parunique1.noun).

I get the same error...

Changed code per below. No difference. Still getting the same error, "incorrect syntax near 'PAR1'.

If I understand sp_executeSQL correctly (and there's certainly some doubt of that!), the order in which...

Could you please illustrate what you mean? (by marking up my code....?)

Thanks again, I've added that to my request.