Seth, never mind, the tite is confusing anyway...

Here is something else that I think that it should be mentioned here:

http://www.databasejournal.com/features/mssql/article.php/3827091/T-SQL-Best-Practices.htm

- scroll down to the "Speed Up Your Searches by...

Seth, I did not (yet) mention PATINDEX. I'd better include the link:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms187489(SQL.90).aspx

than just mention the topic title...sorry...

I'm still not sure what result do you want to obtain...howhver try to use '[C-F]' / [CDEF] instead of 'C, D, E, F'.

See also BOL ---> "Pattern Matching in Search...

Setting the db as "TRUSTWORTHY" may not be a good idea. Maybe you should consider signing the code with a certificate...

I've just ran into http://sqlinthewild.co.za/index.php/2007/10/21/memory-and-sql-2005-sp2/ and http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/927396 - maybe this will help you...

Which is the last SP you applied?

Can you give more details about the "job"?

If you're interested in how the recursive queries work, see

http://sqlblog.com/blogs/linchi_shea/archive/2009/04/16/recursive-sql-queries-how-do-they-work.aspx

Most of my customers have SQL 2005 (standard, enterprise). Now I'm working for someone who still has SQL 2000...

I also have a dev machine with SQL 2008 developer.

Can you be more specific about the data transfer - do you just copy the data, or do you perform any operations on that data? Any other details are welcome...

Bob - at the end of the article there is a link to another post containing some "pros" for using CONFERT(), etc...

Bob, Tom - please see http://sqlblog.com/blogs/jonathan_kehayias/archive/2009/02/19/sql-tip-keep-your-presentation-logic-in-your-presentation-layer.aspx...

It's useful to try to answer to such questions...:-)

You may find out that

SELECT CONVERT(DATETIME,'2009-01.01') and

SELECT CONVERT(DATETIME,'2009-01-01')

both work...:-)

You can do wildcard "LIKE" searched and still use an index seek - see http://www.databasejournal.com/features/mssql/article.php/3827091/T-SQL-Best-Practices.htm ---> "Speed Up Your Searches by Prefixing Wild Card References".

A little offtopic: I'm not sure...

Try SERVERPROPERTY('ServerName'). See BOL ---> SERVERPROPERTY for the possible output.

SERVERPROPERTY('InstanceName') may also return NULL if you work on the default instance (besides invalid input, etc). But I think that you're...

...however, from your nickname I can see that you don't forget the style easily(?)...:-)