As a general rule it favors the most efficient index.

My environment is similar to Chris' database. We have some very wide tables, and...

He's having a rules engine generate his SQL queries. He liked the functionality of IN, but it won't work for multiple columns at once. I...

In any event, for multiple-column testing, you're probably going to have to write some inline table-valued functions like this one. Go ahead and get the multiple ORs...

IN only works for equalities. But what did you want to be BETWEEN 1 and 5? Columns 1-5, or something else?

What should the result be if a row matches two or more established groups? For example, there is a 'Smith' group and a 'Jones' group; then, you...

The optimizer sometimes chooses a "good enough" solution rather than take the time to explore all possible query plans.

The clustered index is sequenced on Column [a]. This means...

Actually, I was referring to why the definition of "expensive" changed, not the OPs current speed.

Gail, does it have to do with things like parallel processing? Much higher CPU cost to get faster throughput?

Evidently it's possible. I see some articles out there on point.

Google all of these at once: MSDN TSQL EXCEL EXPORT MULTIPLE TABS

After looking at the output from RAND(), you may want to read this article:

http://blogs.lessthandot.com/index.php/DataMgmt/DataDesign/sql-server-set-based-random-numbers/%5B/url%5D

RAND() values repeat when doing set-based operations, so many of us use the following formula to generate...

No, I'm not talking about the input batches. I mean how many names are in your client table, or whatever.

Good point to remember is that without a final ORDER BY clause, the optimizer may present rows to you in a manner you didn't anticipate. It just goes...

Mis-posted. Withdrawn.

If the manual process works for you, then go with it. But thanks for bringing up an interesting problem. 🙂

Ron, how many correct names are we talking about? I'm assuming this is like a customer name or something. Is the amount of correct names in...