Curiosity got the best of me, so I decided to build a 1.2M row test harness to compare the 2:

DECLARE @Shifts TABLE

(emp_id varchar(7), start datetime, [end]...

This may also work:

DECLARE @Shifts TABLE

(emp_id varchar(7), start datetime, [end] datetime)

INSERT INTO @Shifts

SELECT 'Dwain', '2012-07-08 08:00', '2012-07-08 17:00'

UNION ALL SELECT 'Dwain', '2012-07-09 08:00', '2012-07-09 17:00'

UNION ALL...

SGT_squeequal (7/11/2012)

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at the moment i dont want to do anything after z27 however, i may then want to re loop it through a second loop to start at AA1 through...

I don't know much about SSIS but if you're inserting into a table, use an IDENTITY column to generate a unique number.

Let me take your questions one at a time.

1. In your experiences, when you get the results of a query, how and who determines if the results are correct?

This will...

Les Cardwell (7/11/2012)

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Ha! I'm glad I could send you on such an adventure 🙂

I'll run both for time comparisons this weekend when there's not much activity on this server (this...

How does generating all possible optimal solutions in under 6 minutes grab ya?

Attached is a write up on the solution including everything you need to run it yourself. I...

Les Cardwell (7/10/2012)

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I haven't had a chance to come up for air to review the latest, but only 8 unique triplets? I get 162...

I did try to use the CTE...

Hey Garry! Sorry for my late reply but I thought I'd suggest an arguably more readable and succinct approach that works in SQL 2008 (using CROSS APPLY VALUES instead...

You'll find a lot more people willing to help you if you post some DDL and sample data in readily consumable format (many regular posters have links in their signatures...

Eureka! I have just hit upon a method that generates "hundreds" of triplet combinations that can be combined 11 at a time to cover all the districts included in...

Try it with a million invoices (3M detail rows):

CREATE TABLE #OrdLine([OrdNo] [int] NULL,[ItemNo] [varchar](50) NULL) ON [PRIMARY]

;WITH Tally (n) AS (

SELECT TOP 1000000 ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDER BY (SELECT NULL))

FROM...

Without some DDL and sample data I can't post a tested solution but something like this may work (INTERSECT the way you've written it should except you misspelled the keyword):

Select...

ramsai1973 (7/8/2012)

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I've finally sorted it out by writing the stored procedure as given below:

BEGIN

-- SET NOCOUNT ON added to prevent extra result sets from

-- interfering with SELECT statements.

SET NOCOUNT ON;

DECLARE...

OK. It's time for a checkpoint, if for no other reason that to get straight in my head what I've been doing.

First, I needed to convince myself of something...