Q1) Potentially, if the length of the varchar update was longer than the original status length.  For example, if the first status was 'New' but a later status was 'Updated',...

STRING_SPLIT also does not guarantee the order of the strings returned (in keeping with relational theory).  That is, you can't be sure that the 10th value that comes out will...

but it seems that DBAs who manage tons of servers have come up with a set of scripts (based on DMVs or other ways of getting insert/update metrics) they can...

Hmm, maybe I misunderstand, I thought the OP said that it was just that one query for the max date, ~ every hour, in order to provide that value to...

Given that the table had no index at all, I didn't think in this case that making the clus index unique was necessary, particularly to the...

I'd probably just add a trigger to the table to capture the max value(s) in a separate table so that it was always available.  All you have to check for...

Given that the table had no index at all, I didn't think in this case that making the clus index unique was necessary, particularly to the...

I posted a simplified query if you don't need to list/modify the individual values.  To just subtract out the excluded values, you don't really need the CROSS APPLY:

            
January 16, 2020 at 4:47 pm
            
#3716045

            
            
                                                
        

Given that the table had no index at all, I didn't think in this case that making the clus index unique was necessary, particularly to the extent of...

Given that the table had no index at all, I didn't think in this case that making the clus index unique was necessary, particularly to the extent of adding the...

Maybe use a separate view for each language you need.  The view itself would be static but would be generated dynamically.

If you want to try this approach, and want further...

looking at your execution plan, 9 million rows at 15 bytes per row is not very large, so it was able to read the entire table and do...

SELECT 
    OT.Stuff1,
    OT.Stuff2,
    [...],
    TotalStuff = TotalStuff - 
     ...

Shouldn't matter, unless it's part of a (much) larger transaction.  A rowlock (at least) will be required to do the UPDATE anyway.  But you could remove it, just in case.

Much...

I'll assume that:

1) you have some way to get the OrderType from the OrderID since you'll need the Type to join to the Buck bits table as it's given

2) you...