First question I'd ask is, what are the additional search criteria? That will affect the index. Also, do you have clustered indexes already on these tables? If so, what columns?...

From BOL:

Avoid using float or real columns in WHERE clause search conditions, especially the = and <> operators. It is best to limit float and real columns to > or...

The problem with floats is that they are imprecise, by definition.

Sorry about the bit of misdirection. I used it against a decimal several times with no issue. Works well in...

Yes, you need to add wild cards. Instead of simply

LIKE '42'

make it instead

LIKE '42%'

There are a number of third party tools that can do this, for example Embarcadero's RapidSQL. You can also simply right click on the tables and get it for yourself....

Yes, that's exactly the type of auditing function that I had understood the OUTPUT function to be useful for. I just hadn't made the leap to using it with more...

Here we have a double edged sword. On the one side, I've got a more effecient tool to use in my queries. On the other side, you just handed me...

I knew of the OUTPUT clause, but I'd only really thought of it for stuff like auditing. This is really useful. So, if you had a multi-row insert, you'd just...

You'd use the SCOPE_IDENTITY like this:

INSERT INTO table

(Desc,UpdateDate,Whatever)

VALUES

('My Description','1/14/2007','Something)

SELECT SCOPE_IDENTITY()

That would insert a row into the table and then give you the identity value generated by that table from the...

Yeah, our company is weird about working from home too. I'm doing it today because a ton of snow was dumped on us. As much as I like my job,...

Assuming I understood the question, if you're asking how to determine what the last identity value inserted was is to use the SCOPE_IDENTITY() function. This returns the last Identity value...

We're only supposed to work 40 hours a week too, but we're also on call. I worked a good two-three hours this weekend because of some problems in production. It's...

While I still think manipulating XML in 2000 is a waste of time, that's a very good idea. If you absolutely HAVE to do it, taking advantage of what you...

2000 doesn't support XQuery. You will have to use string functions. I don't have any samples because, frankly, it wasn't worth doing in TSQL in 2000. Instead we used VB,...

The most immediate benefit you'd see from using the CTE vs. a function is that the CTE will take advantage of indexes within the system as part of it's operation....