That's a good summary, Gus. We had some developers create scalar-valued UDFs (which contained queries) to simplify/standardize their final queries. That way, instead of writing...

You might also consider using the char datatype, which is fixed length, instead of padding and using SUBSTRING. It will save you a few CPU cycles.

declare @char...

Yes, it is normal. Unlike char, the varchar datatype is variable in length and no purpose would be served by storing trailing blanks.

From BOL (books online):

char [ (...

Are all the columns in common between the 50 stored procedures? Even if you defined a temp table with enough columns to handle any of the stored...

I'll chime in as well.

IF EXISTS returns TRUE if any row would be returned from the subquery.

It looks like you confused it with...

Was that thread closed to protect the innocent and unwary? I couldn't peek at it.

In a nutshell, yes. More rows will fit on a page if you are selecting less columns, which means less memory requirement and possibly less I/O. ...

I agree about the dynamic cross-tab being an excellent solution to the problem. I also think this is awful database design. Sorry, but while I...

Is it including the "EXEC" line as a part of the stored procedure? Or are you highlighting and running the ALTER segment separately?

Some other options if you have from 1-X characters following the year/month/date:

declare @samples table (result varchar(15))

insert into @samples

select '2009080105' union all

select '20090801099' union all

select '200908010111' union all

select '2010010102'

select right(result,len(result)-8) as...

RapMaster Jeff, aka Signifying Tally. 😛

I don't think he

Is gonna be

A Ph.D.

Can he write a que-ry?

Let's wait and see.

P.S. Barry: It's not just...

Currently I'm more of a mathematical concept than a name.

Good one, Crawfish!! Thunderous laughter ensues.

Doh!

I am so embarrassed I feel the need to derive to a point again.

However, I have to laugh at the confusion this will engender in people who read this well...

Bruce: Do you mean I am THE only volunteer here? :w00t:

Lynn: Things are coming around. I no longer feel the need...

Thanks, Lynn.