>And a proper table does not have IDENTITY either since it can never be a key

How do you generate unique customer numbers for new customers if you don't use IDENTITY?

(Edit)...

Great job all around Frank!  Congrats on the MVP!

I believe ISQLW will launch Query Analyzer.  I think you meant ISQL and it is fairly well deprecated compared to OSQL.  That, not withstanding, if you use OSQL to...

I'd have to say the data in the Birthdate column was not a valid date or date format.  NULL is not a valid date during conversions. 

>Say to give me all rows with a 'timestamp' column greater than a specific value?<

Yes.  The datatype is varbinary and you can find the last timestamp for the entire DB...

Since you're the only one using it, change the Password on the "SA" account and go for it.

Better late than never... It was the answer I was looking for...

The problem is that, whatever value you are trying to update with, already exists in the Primary Key.  You cannot have dupes in the Primary Key (sorry if that's so...

I know it's been a while but did you ever figure out what the cause was?  I'm having similar problems...

Finally, the voice of reason.  I agree with Kenneth 100%.

Sure, Marilou,

To make a really long story shorter, if you have triggers, procs, whatever, all vying for the same row to update in a tracking table as...

Great lead-in article, Steve.  I sat across from our two DBA's and it's amazing with what they have to put up with and what they have to do on a...

We do not use Oracle contenization characters is MS SQL Server and I'm pretty sure "For 1" just isn't going to hack it...

I don't understand exactly why you are trying to do this BUT...

Instead of redeveloping the wheel... STEAL!!!!   Copy sp_HelpText from the Master database and make the following changes...

1. Replace all occurances of...

If you're not trying to do this in a script and just see or edit what's in the proc, open Query Analyzer, press [f8] to view the object tree, find the...