...If anyone knows, please post it here so we can all learn something...

It was a real life coach... I think Karthik can go a long way if he changes his...

Thanks for the feedback... as always, my test data may not be 100% the same as your situation... once you've tried the index, lemme know how it works... might be...

There is... assuming that your serial numbers are actually integers...

SELECT GapStart = (SELECT ISNULL(MAX(b.SerialNumber),0)+1

...

Heh... make sure you get rid of that pesky TempDB database while your at it. 😛 All it does is take up room and cause headaches... saves a lot...

Just a passing thought... maybe even a...

I'll add a couple of more...

Everyone who doesn't telecommute will hate you (for obvious reasons).

Everyone who doesn't telecommute will perceive you as a slacker unless you produce double the work...

Heh... I know what you're thinking and "No", do NOT change the order of the columns in the index I recommended 😉

The PK Clustered Index you have might be good for something else, but it's no good for this query even though the execution plan say's you're using the clustered index......

For testing purposes, how many file names are we talking about? And, if you don't mind, can you post the CREATE statment for the table, any existing indexs, and...

Yowch! The data's a bloody mess. Who in their right mind would list the word "NULL" for a null in a transmitted text file nevermind add trailing spaces...

Thanks, Steve......

That's not nice... Matt was spot-on by saying you weren't providing enough information. I simply took a guess and didn't say much more than he did.

I do. In fact, I wrote an article about it that should be coming out soon! It was submitted way back on 11 Dec 2007...

And that, folks, is a Triangular join... works seemingly fine on small groups... cripples CPU's on larger groups... be careful...

See the following URL for more details on Triangular joins...

http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/T-SQL/61539/