Can you run the following?

EXEC Master.dbo.xp_CmdShell 'Dir C:\'

If not, your SYSADMIN got the "religion of security" and disabled access to xp_CmdShell.

I'm thinking that's part of the reason he wanted to put it in the Master database although, I agree, putting it in the master is not a good idea.  It...

Ehlinger,

As strange as it sounds, if the flat file is VERY consistant, you can actually use BCP or Bulk Insert to transpose the input from the flat file directly into...

You may have set up the linked server properly but did you set it up with a login using sp_addlinkedsrvlogin ?

That's required unless you allow anonymous logins and that should...

>Jeff, can you give an example where 'a-f' are considered by ISNUMERIC to be convertable to a number?

Sure Frank,

There's others but these will do... only one out of a-f that...

>Why can not select cast ( '123'+char(160) as int) work ?

Probably for the same reason that select cast ( '123'+char(12) as int) won't work.  The extra special characters just aren't convertable to...

Outstanding, Ziga!  Thank you for the feedback!

Shrikant,

This will do it provided your tables correctly have a primary key (composite 2 column PK in this case)... first, the usual disclaimer because this is a data altering script...

Shrikant,

Yes, but I need a little more info...

1. Do the tables have a Primary Key?

2. How many rows does the biggest table have?

3. Are you allowed to use temporary tables?

Ziga,

To do a nearly perfect distribution of random numbers across 3 sets, use the following to overcome the up-rounding that is inherenent in an INT column (you could use TinyInt...

Easy enough...

First, let's take care of adding the ID column, filling it with numbers from 1 to n, and making it the Primary Key... we're going to do it without...

Ziga,

The reason for the error is you have not FETCHed anything. 

Shifting gears... I know you think you need a cursor for this, but you do not.  I will admit...

Ok, just for fun, the following code will report ranges of both present and missing ID's.  Why do it this way?  Because if you have a huge number of missing...

Interesting...  THAT allows you to use sp_ExecuteSQL with more than 4k bytes?  I gotta try that.

No need to be sorry... most of us have made the same mistake early in our SQL careers.  Those that say they didn't... are lying.