Don't use SELECT INTO.  It is an expensive way to do it.

DECLARE your table variable or create your temporary table then use INSERT ... SELECT

I would also split out your...

Was that underground fire the one in the British Telecom exchange in Manchester?

I am not aware of any issues with it other than the obvious mechanics i.e. you accidentally delete the wrong parent record and lose reams of irreplaceable data.

I know that...

In SQL2000 when declaring referential integrity there is an option to "Cascade Delete" related records.

If this option is set then deleting a parent will cascade delete the children with no...

Don't forget that it isn't just action queries that need to be converted to procs.  Select queries that accept parameters will also need conversion.

I seem to remember a package called...

We use a standard DES algorithmn that is wrapped up in a DLL.

You can download one off the net.

The DLL looks at a registry key value to get the seed...

The way that we did it was

• Set up a domain level account to run MSSQLSERVER and SQLSERVERAGENT.
• Give the account bare minimum priviledges on the network.
• Set up an Exchange mailbox for...

I would go further and say that "wrong" tends to be a matter of opinion rather than hard fact.

The general recommendation is that you don't use sp_ as a prefix for stored procedures because internally SQL Server will look in the MASTER database first causing a cache miss.

I'm with...

One plus point on using prefixes is that you are unlikely to use a reserved word accidentally.

Given the plethora or languages out there it becomes ever easier to do this.

I...

My blast everything into a table then index it method works because data is inserted into my intermediate table at maximum speed with no overhead for maintaining any indices.

When the...

I think the CASE in order by statements causes recompiles but I couldn't swear to it.

I prefix stored procedures with usp and functions with fn.

To be honest I have moved...

One method that I did use in the past was

• Upload data into an intermediate table (NOT a temp table) with no indices and no checking whatsoever.
• Create indices on intermediate table...

I'm not sure I understand the problem.  As Phil says, at the end of the month before the cleardown for the next months data simply run the DTS to copy...

I hate the idea of using positional arguments for code.  How the hell are you supposed to know what ORDER BY 3 means without trawling through the code?

The argument put...