You may have to do a DBCC UPDATEUSAGE on TempDB just before the sp_SpaceUsed to get that to change...

Correct... not worth it. And thanks for the feedback.

What? One row? You'll need to show me that URL... take a look at Books Online, instead... example they give uses SELECT TOP 1000 *...

I'm not so sure that's true, Adam. I believe you can use OPENQUERY for this.

Yes... there is another way using a triangular join... but it's horribly slow and relies on a unique or primary key and an order by...

To generate a running count in...

I'll see if I can resurrect the code I used tonight and share it here...

Not without actually seeing the code...

Thanks for the feedback, Shally.

Heh... it wouldn't take as long to explain in person as it did here, Johan... I'd have just pointed out the couple of optimizations that everyone expects, explained that there's...

When all else fails, porkchops seem to work... 😛

MattieNH (3/7/2008)

---

And Jeff, I was so intrigued by your comment about the normalized form including the storing the end date. To read discussions about normalization, I get the impression...

I agree with Matt... EXISTS in the form of NOT EXISTS is used to find something that has no match in another table. EXISTS by itself should probably...

Brandie Tarvin (3/7/2008)

---

Don't ever do this job for the money. Do it because you feel like you're making a difference. Do it because you like solving the riddles....

I have to know because it's a bit unusual... why do you need this type of sort?

Cool. Thanks for posting the solution!