ok now one more question - the data i am importign into my table froim the text file does not have a single column that is unique.  so i am...

ok you must have posted as i was writign this post - so it looks liek i am on the right track.  thank you so much for your help!

ok i'm sorry if i am being dumb but i dont get what your doing there:

SELECT @min_lvl = min_lvl,

   @max_lvl = max_lvl,

   @emp_lvl = i.job_lvl,

   @job_id = i.job_id

FROM...

"Essentially, you'd do a select on inserted and the table in question, joining on the PK / unique data. "

thanks for the reply but thats the part i am really having...

anyone?

interesting idea for the trigger - but what woudl the code look liek to check for dupes and reject?

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