Looks a lot like homework or a quiz... what have you tried?

Outer joins are not always the culprit in slow SQL... joining a bunch of tables and returning to0 many columns usually is.  Also, the reason why adding indexes isn't helping...

Usually, the culprit is a CLUSTERED PRIMARY KEY... change it to non-clustered.

If you want it to be unique across days (11PM today is NOT the same as 11PM yesterday)...

SELECT ...

GROUP BY DATEDIFF(hh,0,PinIssueDate)

Ohhhh hold the phone right there... As much as I like Joe, his comments can really get out of hand... I don't care how good you are, no one has...

Or...

declare @tabla table(field char(20))

insert @tabla values ('AABBZ')

insert @tabla values ('AADDZ')

insert @tabla values ('AA-EZ')

insert @tabla values ('AA--Z')

insert @tabla values ('AA++Z')

insert @tabla values ('AA+EZ')

insert @tabla values ('AACCZ')

SELECT *...

John Rowan is correct about the existing rows... that's why some have suggested that the new column be a "calculated column" (see CREATE TABLE and ALTER TABLE in Books Online...

Lee,

I absolutely agree with Brian on this one... I'm still looking forward to part 2, as well.  Don't let the flamers deter you... think of it like an iceberg... you...

Nope, with the second index in the code, I'm getting an INDEX SEEK on the OR method...

But I agree with the rest... why go through an index at all to...

You say you've been working on it for "weeks"... let's see what you've tried.

I don't know what either table has in it nor what either is used for and you left out the SELECT list so it's really hard to tell, but first...

Jules,

The real fact of the matter is, both the ISNULL and the OR method really stink up the room in this situation (NULL being treated as "future dated")...

To answer the...

Outstanding, Serqiy... at least SOMEBODY tried this and it figures that it would be you

Actually, I whole heartedly agree with you...

"REAL" certainly doesn't work that way on my box...

select convert ( real ,2.5000 )
select convert ( real ,10.0000)
select convert ( real ,20.0000)
select convert ( real ,2.0500 )
select convert (...

Heh... on Brian's note, Steve... I'm thinking "get the glue".