Sorry... had posted a solution here (and deleted it) for hours that didn't take into account days that were on the weekends... I'll be right back with the correction....

This will give you whole days... modify the "ends" of the range to do hours... also, not affected by @@DATEFIRST settings...  very fast... very simple...

 SELECT (DATEDIFF(dd,@StartDate,@EndDate)+1)

       -(DATEDIFF(wk,@StartDate,@EndDate)*2)

      ...

Also, have you looked into using sp_AddLinkedServer... it, in fact, supports links to DB2.  See Books Online,

You could use Sp_ExecuteSQL but then you'd still end up with a table variable that cannot be made to use statistics...

If it were me, I'd use a temp table instead...

Sorry, Remi... that wasn't directed at you... I got so ticked at the mere suggestion that such a simple data manipulation be done...

 Ok... I know... "put up or shut up, Jeff"... fine Let's see you do it any simpler in an app

I try to use my memory... but I forget...

Serqiy... You really that old ?

If there are dupes on a,b, or d... whatcha wanna do?  Just grab anything?  Not exactly a good database practice but it helps...

WHY?  The code won't be any simpler there!

Commando...

First, I gotta share the normal diatribe about your numeric sequence and forgive me while I blast the designer... if you were the designer, sorry, but not sorry...

Nicely done, Kim.

No sure what the "Number" parameter in Sybase is but...

There a multiple functions in SQL Server that return info about the current connection... for example... @@SPID returns the SPID of...

create an updateable passthrough view in each target database

I don't see where you said those words, but may that's what you meant...  I was talking about just creating...

Yep... I missed that one... guess it's time for some sleep