HTH.

I'm wondering if he's talking about using sp_executesql for this??.. we'll see.

Select id, min(DateCol) as EarlyDate

from dbo.YourTable

Group by id

How do you know where the decimal starts?

Also I feel I must mention that this presentational stuff should be made at the client.

But if you insist on doing it on...

hmm I think it's "sushila"

.

Hehe.. I missed that one (referencial integrity). But I think it's the best reason to stop (or not start) this non-sens. Not to re-mention speed, ease of use,...

Not even close to MVP... Don't have a single certif, nor 25% of the knowledge of dts, backup/restore, DR, Security and under the hood workings of sql server that Frank...

HTH.

Almost HTH .

Well mostly because it avoids dynamic sql altogether. Also it avoids doing 14 proc calls lessening the load on the server and on the network.

Well I'm out of ideas.. so I'll have to wish you good luck with this problem...

I'll sleep on it and watch it again in the morning .

I'm not... I thaught that there was a refference to the split function.. There is but it's not so easy to find out.

BTW the charindex is about the slowest method...

Talk about a cliff hanger .

Return must be an int

once you set the output parameter, it "returns" to the caller automatically

CREATE PROCEDURE dbo.sptest

@Par as varchar(9),

@w_o char(9) out

AS

Declare @Int...