It should be char or varchar.

Ideally you should only store the digits and format the phone in the front end. However, you'll need an extra field for extension if needed.

To a column? or to a variable?

You're right Sean, I missed something.

EDIT: I need more coffee or to read more carefully.

I had the idea that the group by would do the sort. However, it might not be the safest thing to do it.

Your query gave me some incorrect results when...

I tested my last solution and won't give the exact results.

Try this instead:

;with MyRank (col1)

as

(

select 6 union all

select 5 union all

select 4 union all

select 3 union all

select 2 union all

select...

Another option:

;with MyRank (col1)

as

(

select 5 union all

select 4 union all

select 3 union all

select 2 union all

select 1 union all

select 1 union all

select 1

)

SELECT TOP 5 col1

FROM MyRank

GROUP BY...

You could return a 'Z' or a NULL

SELECT NextLetter = CASE WHEN ascii(@Letter) IN (122,90)

THEN NULL --What would you return here?

...

Please, don't go step by step.

You have 3 posts very similar and it seems to me that you're not giving us the entire problem.

If we're aware of the whole context,...

Have you tried a JOIN instead of the IN?

I've read there can be unexpected problems with cross-server queries.

SELECT --USE DISTINCT if there are multiple rows in vwCRMServiceProviderAccess

SP.[ServiceProviderGuid],

SP.[ServiceProviderTypeGuid],

SP.[ServiceProviderName],...

Indeed, the query is wrong and it won't take you near to the solution.

I suggest you to avoid that opinion and stay with Dwain's solution.

Next time you should post on the correct forum. 😉

You could have avoided that Lynn hits his head with the desk.

Seriously, you can get better answers if you do so.

Lynn, your solutions are great :-D. But this is the 7,2000 forum 🙁

I wonder if that helps the OP.

Divide and Conquer.

Divide your html into 3 parts: headers, rows and closure.

OK, I misread. All you have to do is add an ISNULL outside the CAST.

However, the original suggestion is...

Eugene Elutin (8/28/2012)

The easiest way to achieve that will be switching to SQL2012 and using sequences.

All others ways will not...

Too complicated. Keep it simple.

create procedure dbo.STORED_PROC_NAME

(

@sstrg varchar(100)

)

as

begin

set nocount on;

--declare @strg varchar(100) = 'Catalog',

set @sstrg = '%' + REPLACE( @sstrg, '*', '%') + '%'

SELECT project_name

FROM groups

WHERE...