Sunny Bolton?  Try Phoenix, AZ, USA some time if you want sunny! 🙂  Just don't come in July through September or you might melt.

I can't help but to smile and giggle...

Hmmm.  Maybe it was specific to a previous version of SQL.  I know I read it, the question is where and when.

Thanks for the info!  I'll definitely have to apply...

I couldn't find a ready reference in BOL, but IIRC, LIKE forces a table walk and I think <> also does.  I'm sure it's on the MS site somewhere.  Definite...

Thanks, Jeff.  I think I'm just going to turn the table into a local one and do the conversion in one pass.  I'm going to have to do two more...

Yeah, definitely a 'best practice'.  My mind set is divided between classical computer programming training (cobol & fortran) and SQL's set orientation where I can't recall having implemented a counter-controlled...

This is pure conjecture, but I think it might hold up.

In Access, if you create a report on a crosstab and the number of fields output changes, your report might...

Also, avoid using nvarchar unless you deal with foreign language content in your database.  nchar and nvarchar take two bytes for every byte a char would take.  Of course, in...

Minor quibble, but you're using "<> 60000" for looping.  This is a risky practice, not so much for simple stuff like your sample code, but in a complicated program it...

Slow typers?  BAH!  Even with having had five operations on my right thumb I can do 50+WPM if I want!  It's the thinking speed that slows down... 🙂

This happened to...

And my sympathy for having been stuck in DataFlex, I've been there.  But I'm a weirdo, I liked Wang PACE and Cobol.  🙂

I'm surprised to see no mention of indexes, I don't know how an equation in a WHERE clause would affect things, but I would think that making sure the inactive...

This'll do it.

Microsoft Windows XP [Version 5.1.2600]

(C) Copyright 1985-2001 Microsoft Corp.

H:\>copy con: file2.txt

line1

line2

line3

line4

^Z

        1 file(s) copied.

H:\>copy con: file1.txt

LINE-A

^Z

        1 file(s) copied.

H:\>copy file1.txt+file2.txt...

Dos guys?  Sometimes.  I go back to the original PC with 4 screws on the back (5 screws came later) and 384K of ram on the motherboard, some 20 years...

Teague, FYI, you can use the copy command to concatenate files, you don't have to use type.  I believe the syntax would be along the lines of "copy trailerrecord.dat+xxx.dat", you'd...

Coalesce, in its raw form, won't do it.  I neglected to mention that I have null fields (fillers) in the data.  They're placeholders but must be represented by commas in...