ok, that's not what I thought you meant. I thought you meant flip all the bits.

This works for 0 and 1:

DECLARE @smallint smallint =...

I'm trying to think of a more efficient way, but for now this should at least function correctly:

;WITH cte_add_row_num AS (
    SELECT *, ROW_NUMBER()...

smallint and char(3) (and I have added the data types to the original post).

ok, that's not what I thought you meant. I thought you meant flip all the bits.

This works for 0 and 1:

DECLARE @smallint smallint = 0
select @smallint...

The expectation, as in the OP, is that 0 becomes 1 and 1 becomes 0.  I didn't really mention -1; typically values are 0/1 for no/yes.

DECLARE @int...

1

SELECT t.*
  FROM MyTable t
 CROSS APPLY (VALUES ('Jan', 1),('Feb', 2),('Mar', 3),('Apr', 4),('May', 5),('Jun', 6),('Jul', 7),('Aug', 8),('Sep', 9),('Oct', 10),('Nov', 11),('Dec', 12)) M(Name,N)
...

1

SELECT t.*
  FROM MyTable t
 CROSS APPLY (VALUES ('Jan', 1),('Feb', 2),('Mar', 3),('Apr', 4),('May', 5),('Jun', 6),('Jul', 7),('Aug', 8),('Sep', 9),('Oct', 10),('Nov', 11),('Dec', 12)) M(Name,N)
 ...

1

SELECT t.*
  FROM MyTable t
 CROSS APPLY (VALUES ('Jan', 1),('Feb', 2),('Mar', 3),('Apr', 4),('May', 5),('Jun', 6),('Jul', 7),('Aug', 8),('Sep', 9),('Oct', 10),('Nov', 11),('Dec', 12)) M(Name,N)
   ...

The table would need to contain, and be keyed on, workerID, year and Course_Code.  This should be a unique key if that is your rule (that is, no single worker...

Consider, for example, with design #1, a unique constraint will insure that the same course is not entered twice for the same year.

But for design #2, you'd have to insure...

You should only ever use the first method, period, no matter what your current requirements are.

The second approach would be a maintenance and query nightmare.

You don't need to do point-in-time recovery if you take a differential at the exact point you want to restore to, just like with a full backup (which was OP's...

Perhaps you could take a differential backup instead of a log backup.  That would not interfere with any other backup process (and you wouldn't have to apply any tran logs...

I've been a DBA on SQL Server for 20+ years and only for certain vendors have I ever had to go thru permission by permission.  I have to admit, for...

NOTE: I modified the quote to use numbers (rather than generic bullets) to make discussing each one easier.

(1) How long will the update process take to update that...