Just a thought, why not check out DTS to do this job. I have to create similar exports on a regular bassis and I've found that DTS gives me far...

I like Sven's solution, I'ld only add a word of caution to save you some possible grey hairs. I have to do this sort of thing all the time, and...

From what I understand the call to dts will invoke the OLE Object in the address space of the calling client i.e. computer a so if that's the way you've...

Couple of questions which could help formulate an answer

Which version of SQL Server are you using?(2000 has ace support for XML, prior to that your options are more limited.)

What do...

Hi, I'm an ORACLE developer too, but I've had to get heavily into SQL Server (quite like it). You might benefit from some gotchas and goodies I've found in my...

Ah welcome to the stone-age. Error handling in SQL Server is one of it's less attractive points, very limited.

There appear to be two types of error, fatal and non...

It really depends on what you need to do. From a performance point of view set-based operations will are generally quicker than cursor stepping.

HOWEVER if your application requires conditional...

I suggest you do the insert by calling a stored procedure from ASP. Your stored procedure will then select the record with the most recent serial number (as OJN suggests)....

Typically a call to Dynamic SQL would look like EXEC('SELECT ' + @columnname + ' FROM ' + @tablename), but I suspect you know that.

Could you post a fuller...

Sorry from my 'Quick Look' I glossed over the CONVERT statements you're using in the date criteria.

Is there a reason why you need to use such a complex structure...

OK Got it. Now if there's a very clever SQL out there that will do this, I would like to know as much as you.

In the meantime a more pedestrian...

Sorry Nelson, maybe it's old-timers disease but what does your reference to vessel mean?

From a quick look I think some indexes would help. I suspect you say the table is 'ordered' by date because you are timestamping each insert. However I don't think...

This maybe stupid, but why are you using DTS to do this?

Surely a Stored Procedure that used a cursor based on the query would get you the records you...

I've had to do something like this during Gas-Market de-regulation in this country. We couldn't find a complete answer, the best was to try and identify a unique 'hit' by...