Unless you have a trigger that keeps track of the changes, you'll have to buy a log explorer software to extract that info. Sql server doesn't keep track of...

This query is way to simple to try to do something fancy with it... I'd just create a proc with the full select statement. Don't forget that the indexed...

You can also take in consideration that this operation can be done at the select level (if you're not sure you want to alter the underlying data).

Is there a reason you can't just create 1 file?

SELECT i.ITEM_NO, MAX(ITEM_VEND_ID)

FROM ITEM_VEND iv,

ITEM i

...

You want a cartesian result that is not cartesian????????

I totally agree with you but the execution plan still shows a smallish difference between the 2 plans... but then again this is unrealistic data so I would read a...

I checked the execution plans for each query, the first one by Carl has a cost of 49.92% vs 50.08% for Hariharan. But without the real indexed data it's...

You can either create a stored proc (best solution) or replace the apostrophe with a double apostrophe

if you try this statement you'll see that it works just fine :

insert...

I'll let the real experts answer that one. I was just bouncing ideas so you could start to see the big picture. If the system is well normalized...

How long does it take to run the queries on you current server (even if it's only test or dev.)..

cause unless you have a single table with 40gig of data...

I'm not prettending I can answer that question, but here's a few question you could ask yourself :

Are you gonna have very complex/ io intensice queries?

How many users or...

Ya the least we can say is that he has a colorfull style .

I really got to get that book...

and read it eventually .

Solution :

Select the distinct groups

cross join to the ref so you get all possible combinaisons

left join that to the calculated sum of your first partial solution

isnull() the missing columns...