Thanks edward.

That opens up another valid work around using TOP 999999999999 (make sure this number is way over the actual # of records possibly returned).

SELECT TOP (10000000) @X = @X...

I went ahead and posted this as a bug on the connect website.

Here's the url if you have anything else to add to this for Microsoft to use to fix...

Well ya, the gotcha here is that '' is a valid "DATE"... and I say that loosely, which equates to day 0 or '1900-01-01'.

Since you do pass a valid "date"...

I sure hope this presentation of writing bad code will find its way on the newsletter someday... I'd sure love to read that!

The transaction blocks a second person from doing the same insert at the same time (that's why the insert and the exists are done in the same DML statement... the...

No, the server will only lock the row while the write is in progress... it will only lock the table if a massive amount of rows need to be written...

Can you post the code again with the things I recommended?

TIA.

Ahh, makes more sens. I was under the impression you wanted to build a script on a new db from a temp table you had just loaded...

otherwise, cte will...

Well yes and yes... but what the heck are you trying to accomplish?

Just on top of my head... a unique constraint of the e-mail could be a great place to start.

Of course since basically all the columns can be nullable in the...

I forgot which thread had a similar problem but here'S something else to think about...

Even with a transaction if you run your code like this :

begin tran

if not exists...

I second that!

I think he is talking about a case to save let's say the application's user's parameter or stuff like that, where the usage of the db is not strickly required....

Last time I checked, SSC was paying 25$ per article posted for the site... that should convince you ;).

Wow, amazing stuff, you guys should write an article about this!!!

I'll let you know what happens if we go through with this project.