now i see its not like '[ then [] its actually like '[] with the [ inside the brackets .

thanks for the article ... ive used the brackets for...

Im not sure i understand your use of like

i get the like '[ and even the wild card % but not the inclusion of the additional set of brackets...

In the problem posed all the suggested choices involved "like"

Is there a reason i should use "Like " instead of the following

select *

...

another issue just came up ....

i have come across some xml files that have the following:

-

-<Circuit Name="13B-10" Adrs="710" G="13B" Ofst="1" Micro="0" SvrID="0" ProcID="727842327" PrgIndx="641" PrgStp="2" Mode="7" A="37.91" StpAH="96.6" V="18.7"...

OMG .... unbelievable .... went from 59sec for 300 records to < 1sec ... wow ... thanks a million ...

I don't know where my head is .... lol ...

here is the query i am using to do this

declare @data xml

SELECT @data = BulkColumn

/*...

Thanks again Steve ... i did something a little different but it helped all the same ... I was pretty beat up by this until your reply ...

Now ... this...

thanks Steve

I'm a newbe ..... I have about 30 tables in my MsSql 2005 database. I'm using VS management Studio 2005. I have about 20 queries that i have written. I...