Incidentally, if you're using SQL 2005, you can jump straight to the final result fairly elegantly

Glad to see...

Heh... for the same reason most British don't measure heat in British Thermal Units?

There is nothing in the code that needs dynamic SQL.  Rewrite the code to take variables.  Normally, the only time you need dynamic SQL is for variable table or column...

Not sure what they call it in 2k5, but have you done a search on Bulk Copy or BCP in Books Online?

David is correct...

First, move the SET NOCOUNT ON statement to before the IF.  There's a lot more at stake than just performance if a GUI is involved (pevents false...

They left off one very important disaster... and that's what happens when you have normal, healthy database growth and the code written against the database reaches a "tipping point".  Lots...

I've never found a performance difference between the Ansi INNER JOIN and the Equi-joins found in a WHERE clause.  And, contrary to what Remi has experienced (not an argument, just...

Just and FYI... there are many times that SQL code simply can't be tuned for performance and will need to be rewritten... sometimes, from the ground up.... 1 to 4...

Also, check out GROUP BY and Aggregate Functions in Books Online.  You may also want to try the free tutorial at W3Schools.com... won't teach you the specifics of SQL Server but...

Correct... I don't believe 4.0 supported correlated sub-queries as appears in the suggested code.

Recommendation would be to see the documentation for 4.0 at MySql.com...

Books Online doesn't have the info you want/need?

Outer joins are not necessarily a bad thing... it's the criteria (or rather, lack of) that is usually responsible for the notorious reputation of outer joins.

Based on the fact that the default is for the Primary Key to get the clustered index and the fact that you're trying to create a different clustered index... I've...

I'm sure that I'm preaching to the choir, but I gotta say it... make sure you have an up to the minute full backup of the database (maybe even a hot...

And, breaking a set of millions of rows up into smaller sets still isn't RBAR...