Those extra characters are the "Byte Order Mark" or "BOM" which Windows helpfully adds to a UTF-8 file even though it is not required and loads of applications can't handle...

I wonder couldn't you use an AFTER trigger with a rollback? something like this:

CREATE trigger ForceOneRow on MyTable

AFTER INSERT

AS

-- Check for multiple rows, but only for a specific user

IF...

ALTER trigger tr_UpdDtTime_spiffy

On My_Totally_Spiffy_Table

AFTER UPDATE

as

If (Update(Column1) OR

Update(Column2) OR

Update(Column3) OR

Update(Column4) )

UPDATE mtst

SET Update_DateTime = sysdatetime()

FROM My_Totally_Spiffy_Table AS mtst

JOIN inserted AS ins

ON ins.primary_key_column = mtst.primary_key_column

Replace "primary_key_column" with your primary key column name(s)...

Try this:

select convert(datetime,stuff(stuff('201106101245',9,0,' '),12,0,':'),112)

Here Doggy! Fetch!

use the "inserted" table to find the rows to update.

yeah that was just to check you were testing! :hehe:

SELECT CEILING(@Value / 0.05)*0.05

Just to be pedantic, if you have an index on that column, you would be better like this:

WHERE whenreceived < CONVERT(VARCHAR(8),DATEADD(DAY,-30,getdate()),112)

select (1+CONVERT(INT,@number / 0.05))*0.05

It really depends on the actual XML structure whether you can do what you want with FLWOR.

As I said, this is a simple example, you can do more complicated work...

jonegerton (7/25/2011)

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@mm.

I think the answer you propose is the best I've seen so far.

I like the suggestion of using FLWOR for this - may not be nicer but an interested...

MuchLearnSoLittleTime (7/23/2011)

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I think that is a good suggestion. Unfortunately the outsourced IT company that hosts the server won't allow us to install anything. They have to do it all. Which...