OK, let me try to get you guys what you need...

CREATE TABLE PRE_LOAD(

KitID varchar(20) NULL,

BatteryID varchar(20) NULL,

TestID varchar(20) NULL,

LBSTAT varchar(8) NULL

)

INSERT INTO PRE_LOAD

(KitID, BatteryID, TestID, LBSTAT)

SELECT...

I finally found an article that explained that the parser expands all CASE statements, which is why the linked server sees this as nested. I ended up splitting it into...

Aaand now it's blindingly obvious. Brilliant. Thanks!

It's definitely not properly normalized and no, I can't do anything about it right now, unfortunately.

Both those variables are declared as char(2) - here's the code that declares and sets...

Thanks Bob. Maybe "efficient" is the wrong word - it just kills me to see that block of code repeated twelve times.