Remi what do u think ab this?

As the error message states, the SELECT/INTO form of the select clause just doesn't work using anything more than a 2 part...

Remi:

i was under impression tha 'prefix' is defined as 'identifier before an entity'

ie in yr query above (post 2626) there are 3 prefixes before the table name, or in other words,...

something like

select * from beta.data_base.dbo.table_name

works just fine, the problem starts when u attempt to create the new table on a linked server remptely from a local server.

Farrell,

what...

same to u

it's mostly clicking in the DTS wizard pointing to objects - boring to death. I'd better typa smth in QZ, or use a template.

the reason I asked is that I have a vague recollection that it can be accomplished that way, fast with just a couple of lines - I did it before but...

Thank u, I will. Needless to say it looks pretty deep to me :=)

Thank you, q! I checked this, it works. The way u did it is much more clear and faster.

Sergei

It works just fine. It's a self join after all.

Thanks a lot, Remi.

Sergei

that's how it can be done with temp table:

--create a temp table

select propertyID, att_id_new into _temp1

from _all_props where att_id_new is null

--drop 'att_id_new' column 

ALTER TABLE _temp1 DROP COLUMN att_id_new

-- add identity...

the numbers in 'attribute_id' columns are not random. each property has an unique 'attribute_id' in the database. I just showed u top 10 records from the table.  What I'm doing...

probably did not give enough details...

prop_ID         attribute_ID

ACEN             2001

AIT                2003

DM                 1194

ENT                 NULL

FLTL                   NULL

FLTU                  NULL

FLVL                 2040

FLVU                  2087

FP                  1200

GFOR                  NULL

need to assign a unique attribute_id (starting with 105001) where attribute_ID is NULL, ie...

I cannot drop the column 'attribute_id' b/c it already contains non-NULL entries for the other 'prop_ID'. I guess I'll have to create a temp table with those prop_id for which...

Hi, Remi

from what u wrote I got:

a    1

b    2

d    3

e    4

c    5

g    6

pls explain how it can help me to do what i wanted to be done?

or do u suggest...