Jeff, I have no control over the file that is sent, comes from an external source.  Every month its a different column (or columns) not included.  Also, the same column...

Thank you, that is a lot cleaner.

This is a simplified example of what I'm going to use as the solution:

IF OBJECT_ID('tempdb..#Test2') IS NOT NULL DROP TABLE #Test2
CREATE TABLE #Test2
(A int, B int, C...

Yes, I was also thinking from a maintenance perspective dynamic would not be the best solution.  Today its 3 missing, it might be 5 in the future so adding the...

I have one idea I haven't tried yet (think it will work):

(1) import data into temp file

(2) use alter database to add the missing fields if they do not exist

I'd...