thanks for the posts. as i said i know how to do it without merge. i was looking for the merge way to do it

Thanks for the example but i am looking to do the same using MERGE

not sure that it is possible but was wondering if it is possible somehow

Hi Lutz,

thanks for the message. these tables where built by me about 6-7 years ago when i didn't know too much SQL. when the tables where small and held thousands...

yes please. a sample would be much appriciated.

thanks.

for simplicity assume i have this data

IDDateXYData

11/1/2000 00:00:00121

21/1/2000 00:01:00341

31/1/2000 00:02:00561

41/1/2000 01:00:00562

51/1/2000 01:01:00782

61/1/2000 01:02:009102

as you can see the Data field only changes twice (00:00 and 01:00). so i want to create...