The method below creates and loads a table data type to hold the desired datetime ranges.  The defaults are as you specified -- from 17:00 the previous day to 17:00...

If you want to check the identity column specifically, you can use the reserved name IDENTITYCOL, which will always refer to the identity column of any table:

SELECT * FROM tableName

WHERE...

What about the overhead of the comments themselves?  This if often overlooked.  It's my understanding that SQL does load comments (even full-line/multi-line comments) into the proc cache.  So lots of...

One of my concerns with a sequence table, aside from the additional I/O and other overhead, is that you cannot then easily insert multiple invoices in one statement. 

If, for example,...

>> "SET IDENTITY_INSERT ON" would be needed for prior year, with logic similar to above, but hopefully that would be relatively rare. <<

In fact, in most systems, especially dealing with...

Yes.  Or possibly even a single identity column that was re-seeded each year to yy00000[0]; the "-" could be added prior to display just for the "visual effect" for the user. ...

Don't see any need for the "IF" at the start of the function.  I wrote an almost identical function for this purpose but with just the WHILE.

To check for existence of a column, don't think you need to do a system table query at all, just use a built-in SQL function:

IF COL_LENGTH ('tableName', 'columnName') IS NULL

    --column...

DECLARE @v-2 VARCHAR(200)

SET @v-2 = 'http://www.google.com/intl/en/images/logo.gif'

SELECT SUBSTRING(@v, CHARINDEX('//', @v-2) + 2, CHARINDEX('/', @v-2, CHARINDEX('//', @v-2) + 2) - (CHARINDEX('//', @v-2) + 2))

--That will work for *any* string prior to the...

Something like this should perform *much* better

SELECT     a.procid, b.[ClientName] AS CName, b.[CompanyName], b.[CustRefNum] AS CRef,

                  b.[JobNumber] AS JNumber, --...,

                     b.[County] AS RCounty

FROM      ...

When you run code #1, it actually does seem to work, although I'm not exactly sure why it would.  Since punctuation falls within that range, it really shouldn't.  You can run...

I agree with Tim 100%.  The code suggested would not necessarily work and presumably would be less efficient than a not check.  Very frequently when the qod is a T-SQL...

I assumed that too and got it right, but why not make the question match the answer:

Bill needs to show the day of the week for today's date on a...

Silly premise for the question, since it would require that the highest sales always occur on the current day.  Just don't try rerunning the report

I think you can remove leading tab(s) directly within a SELECT, without any CASE or loop, for example:

DECLARE @tabPattern VARCHAR(8)

SET @tabPattern = '%[^' + CHAR(9) + ']%'

DECLARE @tabRemove VARCHAR(200)

SET @tabremove...