Thank you very much guys... far more info than I had expected.

All very valuable to me also.

Thanks for all you input guys. I agree with the comments regarding SQL2005. However my new employer will not be switching tothat just yet - so isnt a problem.

Is...

If I understand this right, all you want to do is concatemate the rows into one? If this is the case, leave everything after the SELECT, and recode your SELECT...

How about something like this instead:

select  top 1 *

from [myServer].[myDB].dbo.contact c

inner join [myServer].[myDB].dbo.contact_2 c2

on c.contact = c2.contact

order by c2.contact desc

should give you the same result...

Have thought of doing the exact same thing myself, however no longer have the need. My solution was to have a seperate table with details of the stages of the...

This will do the trick:

select * from jcjobm where job_stat <> 'A' and date_closed > GETDATE()

JET 4.0 is used for OLEDB connections to files such as .csv and .xls files. Hence the JET error.

Are you using a DSN that is only stored on your machine?

Maybe...

Interesting one this. Do you have any indexes on the 90 column "big" table?

Personally I would have the 12 smaller tables, each with their own indexes.

As for dynamically building...

Out of curiousity, have a look to see what it says in sysobjects for that particular table.....

Not if you are inputting directly into QA or EM, only an application would allow this.

What error are you getting?

20 fields = 20 variables I am afraid!!!

Have you tried avoiding the use of a cursor by using temp tables instead?

Try the following:

SELECT Surname

FROM Students

WHERE Surname LIKE 'O%Connor'

or something like this:

--Get ASCII value for character

SELECT ASCII(')

SELECT Surname

FROM Students

WHERE REPLACE(Surname, CHAR(Insert ASCII Value), '') = 'OConnor'

** I havent tested the last...

Will a function accept a table as input?

Bit of a stab in the dark - have you checked the disks for any errors?