yes, thank you I realise this now.

We are currently taking steps to redesign the database and the queries to deal with this.

Thanks again!

actually trhis is a dead issue, no need to respond!!!

unless you have something to say...

i agree with the table aliases, do ordinarily, but stopped on updates because of some problems referncing the update table, but will start again and see

as to the update query...

I...

Question:

What exactly is  [v2_lookup].[dbo].[nsg06may].[col016] 

an error in typing, in the actual query it reads [v2_lookup].[dbo].[nsg06may]

i will look at dealing with the functions as I did not realise they would affect...

well we are fortunate - no updates or deletes, just inserts once a quarter (aprx 2.4 million records)

is there any benefit in not bothering with calculated column, and just have...

ah - this might help me

the part code is normally 10 chars long (alphanumeric)

but is normally used in first 3, first 4, first 7, or whole 10

so...

thank you David,

In this context, where there is a clustered index on the column, the LIKE uses the clustered index seek and is over 20 times faster

3 secs for the...

many thanks vladen