SP2 seems to introduce almost as many problems as it fixes. That said, if I were doing an install today and didn't face one of the specific issues that SP2...

Since this posted in SQL Server 2005, why not use nvarchar(max)? No problems there, stores the same data.

What about using sp_msforeachdb along the lines of

'SELECT [TABLE_NAME]

FROM ?.INFORMATION_SCHEMA.TABLES'

Substitute where you need to. This works across all the database and eliminates the need for a cursor.

I've mainly grown my best practices over time. We record them locally as we discover new ones that we didn't know we need. MS has some help in this area....

It must be a system proc. There's not only nothing BOL. There's nothing at MSDN. There's nothing at TechNet. There's precious little on a google search. What are you mucking...

Sure, it's a common table expression. It's new in 2005. They function similar to derived tables, but can be referenced multiple times in a give procedure and, most importantly for...

And the recursive section of BOL has an example doing almost exactly what is being requested here. You ought to be able to take the example & make it...

We took a script from SQL Server Central that checked fragmentation and then decided whether or not to reindex or defragment (great script, used it for years, I'm not sure...

Oops. Did a bit more testing & found you need to add this at the end:

OPTION(MAXRECURSION 0);

Or you could...

No promises on performance but:

DECLARE

@BeginDt DATETIME;

DECLARE @EndDt DATETIME;

SET

@BeginDt =

I had to meet a similar need. We figured out that there were only a few constants. So, instead of trying to design a storage engine to get at data...

100% agreement with everything you said and thank you for saying it. Situational awareness has to extend past one's self. If something looks bad, it probably is. Do something about...

I'd move this kind of processing into SSIS. You've really stepped outside what TSQL is meant to do with all the file I/O. You'll probably get the same or better...

Thank you. Yes, that is on the list as a possibility. I'm just trying to explore the space and I'm not finding much in the way of documented approaches.

True, and it's something I'm looking into, but it makes me even more nervous. As the article you link to states, if the app isn't processing this information as fast...