I've always been referred to as a very simple guy, maybe that means something.

It's not a typo, it's a famous quote in america . Maybe it's gonna be inserted in the dictionnary someday.

Conversion is a...

Child care .

Yup, so simple yet so powerfull . That's what sql is all about .

Then I'll keep the few hairs I have left .

A quote from Friends :

Joey: All right, Rach. The big question is, "does he like you?" All right? Because if he doesn't like you, this is all a moo...

On the same line, Sql_variant is just not data, so why keep it in the database?? If you need to store complexe data that can't be preserved in [n][var]char or...

No because it's the wrong design. Sql_variant causes extra overhead to cast to the current type when used (internally) and also needs to have extra metadata maintained in the...

Crap, I just remembered that the new unoperational server is dual proc .

Thanx... aren't I glad I don't have a dual proc .

Now you know what you have to do to solve the current problem... and all the future ones that can come your way

Yup and while I was typing, the poster gave us his needs so this is a moo point now. Glad we think the same

Sushila I'm not sure you understand the flag system I propose. Here are all the variants :

Date - CharFlag - TinyintFlag

Year only

1981/01/01 - YNN - 1

Month only

1900/03/01 - NYN...

Declare @A table (CURDATE smalldatetime, EMPLOYEE_NME varchar(50), MANAGER_ID int, ACTION_TAKEN varchar(20), primary key (CURDATE, MANAGER_ID))

Insert into @A (CURDATE, EMPLOYEE_NME, MANAGER_ID, ACTION_TAKEN)

Select '6/22/2005 4:43:40 PM', 'Flintstone,Fred', 30000002, 'Follow-up'

Insert into @A (CURDATE,...

Yes but the flag system is somewhat different, you say Y is for year, M is for year and month, d is for all. Where I say YNY as...