I agree with the recursive table structure concept.  You'd have something like this (very simplistic -- will need some work!)

FLD: UserName

FLD: SettingsBasedOn  (this field is linked back to the UserName field...

Below is a string-to-table function that I found a long time ago (maybe on SCC).  It converts a comma-delimited string to a table.

CREATE FUNCTION dbo.fnStringToTable(@sText varchar(8000))

RETURNS @retArray TABLE (value sql_variant)...

What I have done in the past is have an SP/trigger/etc write the "email" to a table in the DB, storing the TO, subject, body, etc.  I then have an...

I lean towards creating my own tables for storing user IDs, passwords, permissions, etc.  However, depending on what you're writing your app in you may be able to leverage SQL-DMO...

Agree... store date/time together, but you can also "store" the hours work in a computed column if you'd like.  Check out "computed columns" in BOL for details.

Not a direct answer to your question, but related.  I'm doing something similar using RTF templates but I'm doing my "replacing" in my ASP pages and feeding the values from...

Wow -- excellent letter, good for you for not just taking a "who cares" attitude but for expressing your views and concerns.  However, sometimes a "ranking" structure like that might actually...

This is a cool date format function I found a while back.  See header comments for credits...

/*

//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

Author: Rusty Hansen 8-21-2001

Description: Formats a date to a specific format.

Parameters:

    ...

The include file is ADOVBS.INC.  Get it here http://www.asp101.com/articles/john/adovbs/default.asp.  Just remember to rename it to a .ASP file since someone can browse to a .INC file and actually see...

Depending on your GUI (web app, VB app, etc) the methods will vary.  For example, in an ASP web app you could use Persits ASPUpload (if available) or some other...

It probably depends on whether you'll be processing the XML files individually or if you need to process many XML files together.  If the latter, importing it into a normalized...

Just curious... what is the new host you went to?  Always good to hear about a good service provider out there, since as we all know, there are a lot...

I am way more of a SQL developer than a DBA, but I believe the root problem lies in the fact that thru EM the only backup devices you can...

If your SQL DB provider is anything like the one I use, I doubt Martin's suggestion will be feasible.  I too was in the same predicament as you in that...

No that's not what he's after.  There was a second post and if I think I've got it, he has a VB app point to a SQL Server database and...