If you run SET SHOWPLAN_TEXT ON before your query, you'll get a bunch of hideous text that I believe is the equivalent of the hideous graphical output of Query Analyzer...

If you want something a little more low-tech, there's good old osql at the command line. You can pass it a query and specify delimiters, etc. Use the -w switch...

Or, try this. I would guess performance will be the same, but it's less typing.

select top 1 2003 from adm.activitylog

where start_date >= '2003-01-01' and start_date < '2004-01-01'

union all

select top...

This is a case where brute force is your friend:

select Year

from (select 2003 as Year,

  cast('2003-01-01' as smalldatetime) as StartYear,

  cast('2004-01-01' as smalldatetime) as EndYear

 union all

  select 2004 as Year,

  cast('2004-01-01' as smalldatetime),

  cast('2005-01-01' as...

I don't know if this might help, but make sure you're setting your batch size to... something. How this is done varies by whether you're using bcp or DTS or...

select strBusinessFunction,

       SUM(CASE WHEN strCondItionStatus ='A'and strTestPlan = @TestPlan  THEN 1 ELSE 0 END)AS 'A',

       SUM(CASE WHEN strCondItionStatus ='U'and strTestPlan = @TestPlan THEN 1 ELSE 0 END)AS 'U',

       SUM(CASE WHEN...

create table #Source_Table (ITEM char(1), SOURCE char(2) )

insert into #Source_Table

select 'a', 'aa' union all

select 'a', 'bb' union all

select 'b', 'cc' union all

select 'b', 'dd' union all

select 'b', 'ee'

select ...

>>You can do it via vbscript...<<

Keep in mind, though, that if you have a named instance, or multiple instances, or a clustered server, that the name of the NT Server...

select cast(cast(cast(cast(getdate() as binary(8)) as binary(4)) as binary(8)) as datetime)

"getdate()" used as an example of a date.

Cast it to binary(8). Cast that to binary(4) -- that lops off the right...

convert(char(2), getdate(), 3)

less typing

Chris Hofland

I'm too lazy to check BOL, but off the top of my head, I believe the rule is that when SQL Server compares two strings (char/varchar) the shorter of the...