You declared it as CHAR(2000), rather than a VARCHAR. CHAR automatically pads from the end of the word all the way to "n" where CHAR(n).

There's almost always at least two or three ways to get something accomplished. Here is an example without a unique identifier:

INSERT INTO x

SELECT y.*

FROM

 tbl2 AS x

LEFT JOIN

 (

  SELECT * FROM #tbl1

  UNION

  SELECT...

DELETE FROM

 y

FROM

 tblA AS x

INNER JOIN

 tblB AS y

ON

 x.id > y.id

 AND

 x.attribute1 = y.attribute1

 AND

 x.attribute2 = y.attribute2

Create a table variable or a temp table and insert into it from the EXEC command. Once you have captured it in the table, you can save the value in...

Make sure that the dtsrun utility is being passed the correct user and password. Check the other jobs that are running successfully to see what's being passed.

Which GUI doesn't allow you to use CASE? I've never used a 3rd party environment, SQL Query Analyzer has always let me take care of business.

Zip codes change frequently. If you need current zip code information for the entire country, then you will have to run regular updates based on data from USPS or a 3rd...

Well, basically it would be a page, or series of pages, that would list links and short descriptions for various conferences in some sort of date order. The links would...

I find the ISNULL() function solves most issues for me:

WHERE ISNULL( field, 'x' ) <> 'x'

Why use buzz words like "leveraging"? Who is it supposed to impress? I "use" these products on the job; does that make me old-fashioned?

The efficient way is to shop for software that does address cleanup for you. No sense in recreating this particular wheel.

This is how I handle errors within stored procedures. The first statement is an update where I catch the error code with a SELECT and if there is an error, it prints an...

Users should not be entering parts ID numbers. Let them choose from a list of pre-existing, un-editable IDs.

Thanks everybody!

Then maybe you should figure it out, then come back and tell us?