Please post data in a consumable format so we can work on your problem instead setting it up. The main reason you are struggling with this is because you multiple...

And if at all possible you should consider splitting these attributes into their own rows. Storing multiple values in a single field violates first normal form.

A couple of thoughts. First it might be a lot easier to do this by adding ROW_NUMBER to your query, then you can just a Where RowNum < @N

Secondly, and...

In addition to using a tally/numbers table you might also want to take a look at this article from Lynn. It has a collection of excellent methods for finding certain...

Here is the solution. http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/71550/%5B/url%5D

Since nobody has said it yet....any chance you can change your datatype in the table to be a datetime? You really should be storing datetime information in a datetime column....

realvilla (6/27/2013)

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Sean, here is the "unsolved mystery". When I run your program pretty much as written, I get about 70,000 rows that don't update (null Return dates). Included...

valeryk2000 (6/27/2013)

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Ha! Sean, you elegantly rewrote my function (stollen from somwhere anyway).

I do not think that to use cte in my case is a good idea - I use this...

Let's take the excellent example from David and turn it into a iTVF instead of a scalar function.

create FUNCTION dbo.fnExtractDigits (@inString VARCHAR(8000))

RETURNS table

return

select SubString(

SubString(@inString, PATINDEX('%[0-9]%', @inString), Len(@inString)), 0,

PATINDEX('%[^.0-9]%', SubString(@inString,PATINDEX('%[0-9]%',@inString),Len(@inString))))...

I would recommend NOT doing this as a scalar function. Scalar functions are not good for performance. You can easily leverage the DelimitedSplit8K function for this.

select top 1 *

from dbo.DelimitedSplit8K('NYSTATIN...

Did you read my response? I mention that is...

I would say you don't, that is kind of like polishing...

Ed Wagner (6/27/2013)

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Ed Thompson (6/27/2013)

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But the supreme rule is: all input should be viewed as questionable whether it is coming from a source internal or external to your organization. ...

Many calls to the same scalar function (dbo.PopulateLoadNew). Is UNION neccesary, or can you use UNION ALL. There is a lot of low hanging fruit for performance in here.

AND (

ISNULL(Hours,...

tmummert (6/27/2013)

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I'm trying to insert rows into a table that has multiple constraints. My statement is failing because SQL is looking at the first constraint field and sees that...