Good point, Jack. Although we do formatting at the db level for consistency, if you just stored phone numbers as integers, you would trim fat out of...

No problem, Jace 🙂

Several times, I've realized that I missed something significant in the original post. Surely it happens to other people too.

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LD, you are quite welcome.

I'm really glad to hear that are you concerned about efficiency. Here are the tried and true ways to measure performance.

declare @timer datetime

Set statistics time on; ...

Note to self: Only drink water... in small sips... while reading The Thread.

Yes, John, you were.... and you were.

(applause, thunderous applause)

But now we're at 3501 and moving on towards 4,000... the moment was just too good to last.

So the answer is "It depends." No doubt you will be honest...

You could also do this:

1. Use @TermPeriodId int = NULL in your parameters list.

2. Immediately following SET NOCOUNT ON;

set @TermPeriodId = isnull((select termperiodid from...

Yes, new in 2005, CTEs are (for me) much easier to follow alternative to subqueries. They are like views that only exist for a single query. I...

I'm part of the 1% of SQL humanity that hasn't read your article yet. Is it on your blog?

Barry!! You're AWAKE !!

One Thread to rule them all.

One Thread to find them.

One Thread to bring them all

and in the darkness bind them....

Glad you could join us, Flo.

You didn't learn to program in RPG did you? 😀

I've used both SUBSTRING and STUFF. Lately I've stayed with STUFF. You should also test...

While we're all scratching our heads, may I suggest that you simplify this a little by using a CTE up front to develop values? Use your existence test...

You should get extra points... those suckers are painful !!

Pork chops... I don't even want to think about it. ...

I'm not one to throw stones... especially where the word "fool" is involved 😉

By the way, the respect is returned.