Steve, you said in your editorial:

"Researchers need to be willing to evolve their algorithms as they learn more about a problem. Probably they should also...

Best Blog: Jason Strate, Brent Ozar, Robert Davis, or Paul Randal

Saved my Bacon: Biml Basics - Level 1&2 by Andy Leonard

http://www.sqlservercentral.com/Forums/Topic1474357-208-1.aspx

pointed me towards BIDS Helper...

What is SQL server not good at? SSIS (sorry, I know that is too general)

At least there should be documentation and warnings about the import issues that have persisted through...

Thanks Lowell, yours is a better answer for most environments. Mine is fairly unique with very large weekly/monthly loads. To speed the load we update stats later in a stored...

Well, since this is a third-party app this might not be a practical option. Auto update stats is a database level command, impacting the whole db. Below is the command...

The optimizer doesn't know the value of the variable in the second query it is changing the query plan to use a clustered index scan rather than a seek as...

In the skyscraper where my company is HQ'ed the leasing office requires mag locks and oversees the door cards. Our suite is always locked. Occasionally executives come for a visit...

As long as there are clowns in charge who think the ability to deliver technical content to a group is ruled by anything other than talent, hard work and the...

OCTom and sestell1

+1 I chose the same answer, and at least we are erring on the side of caution!

Steve, great question which cleared up my misunderstanding of the need for...

Please define what you mean by "slow". What are the exact symptoms? What is the db doing that it doesn't normally do? What troubleshooting have you done so far?

Take a look at these articles and see if you can adapt these techniques to your needs:

http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/Integration+Services+(SSIS)/64014/

http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/Integration+Services+(SSIS)/99287/

http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/14341/Using-the-Foreach-ADO-Enumerator-in-SSIS

http://sqlblog.com/blogs/eric_johnson/archive/2009/11/13/ssis-2008-looping-through-rows-in-a-table.aspx

Thanks Sarah, your article is very intersting and gave me some ideas. I can't wait to play around with this. Most of my business data comes from vendor flat files,...

Thanks for posting this script. A lot of work and thought went into this. Lots of us are on shoestring budgets.

Fiction Favorites: Avengers and Looper (very thought provoking)

Non-Fiction (mostly) Favorites: Act of Valor and Argo

I am fascinated by the effects of technology on teamwork and the consequences of its adoption,...

Great job Krista, I appreciate you taking the time to write this up as an article. Excel with and without PowerPivot connections is a familiar and flexible tool for my...