I would not be so excited about "getting rid of those damned collation clauses".

Some DBA's don't notice the difference between SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AI collation and Windows Latin1_General_CI_AI collation.

> What am I doing wrong?

Creating tables for each country.

If you need it "someday" you can create a view

SELECT ..., CONVERT(varchar(8000), TextColumn) as VarcharColumn

FROM TableWithTextColumn

YOu can use all your favourite benefits without managing 2 tables.

Don't like views -...

Why not?

As I can understand this column is just a dump for some texts.

If there is any kind of useful information in it (e.g. key words, some profiles) then it...

Tom, did they really teach you in school that structural programming is only about reusability?

Ask any developer - do they create separate method only if it's ment to be reused in...

At least it will work.

But is it what you need - it's for you to decide.

Probably with those dates you mean something like this:

SELECT T1.DonorId, T1.PeriodId, T1.[Date] as DateLimitReached

FROM Table1 T1

INNER JOIN (select DonorId, PeriodId, MAX(Date) as NotYet

            from Table2...

Read topic "converting data types, overview" in BOL.

Probably it will give you same idea how to deal with precisions in SQL.

I would probably have a solution if somebody could explain me in plain words ("For dummies" ) what does it mean:

"order to prevent...

You can call SP from another SP.

If you believe that "SQL script syntax doesn't seem to lend itself to any sort of structure" then you don't know SQL.

You need to understand your data and establish proper FK relationships on INT columns when you INSERT the data.

It's too late to do it when you do SELECT.

Why?

1) You do...

CONVERT(VARCHAR(8000), WRnotes)

creates a column of 8000 size. Plus other columns in this table - and you are over the limit.

Probably you don't need 8000 chars for this column. Or if...

What are you trying to update?

UPDATE tbl_Partition1

SET ?????? = ?????

FROM v_Partition t1

INNER JOIN tbl_JoinTable t2 ON t1.key = t2.key

WHERE t1.partitionKey = tbl_Partition1.myPartitionKey

So, you gonna transform -102613.5000  into -10261.3500

Are you sure these values are equal? 

What do you mean "trim".

Which way you want to trim value -102613.5000  to DEC(9.4) ?