Whilst I enjoyed the mental exercise and learning something I didn't know about 2005, I just can't picture when I would actually do such a join in real life. ...

The final SQL didn't work for me, QA returned an error about the hyphen.

Also, I'm not that experienced but surely it's "case when" and not "casewhen" ?

Thanks Mark - SM.

Thanks David, I'll go buy the book now!

This article, and its many replies, is a great example of why I like this site so much! Valuable points are made, with time taken to describe exactly how...

Sorry, the notable word in my last post was 'update'. The running totals issue can be addressed in a number of ways outside a cursor. But what of...

Thanks for the Robyn Page Simple Talk article, I'm reading it now. There's a difference between needing to calculate a running total on the fly and having to calculate...

I needed to get a cumulative running balance column in a table. So I used a cursor. I'm not very advanced but it seemed like the only way...

OK, after my earlier rant, and having read the ensuing comments, I too will agree on the difference between 'consultant' and 'contractor'.

But why is it that we are arguing these...

I haven't read the other responses so apologies if this repeats something that was said earlier (and better).

If you hired a plumber and they really didn't know their way around...

Still funny a year later!  Just what I needed to 'zen out' after a hellish journey to work during a London Tube strike.

Hi - based on the dates of the other comments, I'm coming to the party a little late.  But thanks for a very clearly-explained (and with two examples) piece of...

Gosh, some people can be very strident.  "Just don't use nulls!" ?  Really, show me the db that can be guaranteed to have a value in every row, every column. ...

Hi Ninja - wow, is that ever a good workaround!  I've been focusing so much on the "woods" that I missed the "trees".  Yes, of course by converting GETDATE() to...

Hi - let me start again, this might be easier:

1) Need today's date so use function GETDATE().

2) SQL Server only has datetime fields (no date-only...