Do you have a job step similar to EXECUTE [dbo].[usp_MU_Format2] or are there...

Just a pot shot:

It might be driven by the developer who want to make sure the key is unique but wasn't able to define a UNIQUE PRIMARY KEY (for good...

You've posted as single stored procedure but you refer to SQL Server Agent failing in a couple of steps. Please clarify.

What are the exact steps being called in your SQL...

I'm not sure if I fully understood the requirement (especially for N>3)...

My assumption: a cell is "inline" if all but one value match the cell coordinates in question.

"All but one"...

Lynn Pettis (11/13/2013)

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Just finished the interview, and I feel like a Junior DBA....

What's the reason for the CAST conversion?

It seems like o.invoiceid is already a character data type. What exact data type are the two columns referenced in the join predicate (o.invoiceid...

I'm not saying either of the solutions is right or wrong. Both are just different in terms of the final result. They're just not equivalent.

Whether the current approach works...

GilaMonster (11/13/2013)

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Jonathan Marshall (11/12/2013)

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The queries are updating lookup tables that do not have a value by using a subquery to the lookup table.

I like that idea of using a...

It depends on the query being used to get the raw data.

It might be sufficient to add a "TOP 3 ... ORDER BY Year DESC, Month DESC" to the underlying...

hunchback (11/12/2013)

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Because the requirement is to have an xml file, not a caracter text one, with the prolog / encoding / descriptor or whatever it is. SQL Server does not...

Ich habe keine Ahnung, wovon du sprichst, Luis!

(I have no idea what you're talking about, Luis!) 😀

@Kyr_Soronas: I though about an approach towards what mickyT came up with, but just without the "fancy geometry stuff" (@mickyT: no offence intended 😉 )

However, instead of using...

It would be great if you could provide a more detailed scenario (e.g. table definition, sample data, your current approach and the expected result).

To simply copy the in- and...

@eric:

From my point of view, every approach will lead to the same execution plan including the table/index scan (including the MERGE approach).

A rather dirty approach would be a...

Flip the start and end positions where start >= end so you can use a "standard query" and add constraints to ensure start <=end.