Also if it's not created with UNIQUE the DB engine adds a 4 byte uniqueifier column. You can't see this column.

Hmm, didn't know that.

Try something like this

DECLARE @d AS VARCHAR(50)

SET @d = '26/05/2009 15:15:15'

SELECT CONVERT(DATETIME,SUBSTRING(@d,1,10),103)

The 103 tells convert the format of the date.

But notice that in your example data the length in the...

I don't think you can do that because you would have a gap in the LSN sequence (the Log chain).

Hmm - staging table?

It does open up all of the functionality of SQL. My 2p. I often see requirements that are not fully scoped out or that are likely...

Thanks John, I hadn't really considered that.

I would probably load the file to a staging table and then perform the insert/update in a stored proc.

The stored proc would have 2 statements. In the stored proc I...

Hmm - makes sense.

Thanks Phil

Hi Phil,

Thanks! That sorted it. I found one of your code snippets on this site that used the VariableDispenser to read a row and it was simple to switch it...

Very welcome

Probably no need for NULL check because

DECLARE @i AS INT

SELECT @i = COUNT(*) FROM sys.columns WHERE 1 = 0

SELECT @i

Returns 0

but no bad thing to mention our friend/enemy...

More like this (on sql 2005)

DECLARE @i AS INT

SELECT @i = COUNT(*) FROM sys.columns WHERE object_id = 8

SELECT @i -- lets see the result

Great - I think you answered the question!

Can you post the SQL?

Hi Ryan,

Something like this where @YouVar is the variable with your count

DECLARE @MessageBody AS VARCHAR(255)

SET @MessageBody = 'Contains ' + @YourVar + ' records'

EXEC msdb.dbo.sp_send_dbmail

@recipients=N'ryan@test.com',

@subject ='Test Message Subject',

@profile_name ='Ryan_Test'

@body =...