Pleasure. This is one of the first real uses I've seen for them too.

Would it be possible for you to point me to a good reference that would explain what you mean by "the appropriate xml indexes on the column". Are you referring...

You can't use non-deterministic functions within a user-defined function. That include rand(), newid() and getdate() amoung others

What you can do is write a more generic function that takes 2 params,...

Look in books online for recursive common table expressions. They're exactly what you're looking for. Here's quick example. Should give you an idea.

WITH

MenuCTE(ParentID

You can search xml very efficiently in SQL 2005, if you use xquery and have the appropriate xml indexes on the column.

What do you want to do with the data...

Had a case of that recently. One of the business users complained that the faxng was always slow (we use a faxing system that saves the faxes in the db)....

In addition to the above points, check the fragmentation of the indexes on both your dev and prod boxes.

Is it possible for you to post the table and index structure...

Since you're not using a where, you will get limited improvemetn from indexes. I would suggest, as a first pass, put indexes on the foreign key columns. It may not...

It's going to be my file and database server, as well as a backup site for stuff from my desktop.

I do computer graphics as a hobby, so I have...

Just bought myself a server, with 4 160GB drives. I'm going to set them up in a RAID 5 array. That will give me a nice total of 480GB on...

SET SHOWPLAN_ALL ON

GO

<your query here>

You won't get results, just the plan in text format. Then you can use any search function (including the one in management studio/query analyser) to find the...

Using float for financial values is a bad idea. It's an inaccurate data-type and you may well get rounding errors.

Use either numeric or decimal and set the scale high enough...

I haven't worked with Access for several years, but if I recall, those queries should be executed client side, not server-side.

Can you please post the exact error, that way maybe...

It's the data source for a form? Is it set as a pass-through query?

What error are you getting?

OK, that makes a bit more sense.

Where is that query? Within a report/form/object data source? in a stored proc?

What's the error that you get?