Ignoring the issue I was having which now works, the reason I am unpivoting is because I am getting an upload every month from a spreadsheet that I am uploading...

You don't need the actual table for the select as I am not actually getting any data from it.  I just need to read a table for the unpivot.  I don't...

The reason this is being done is because we are setting up an archival database that will be sent about 40,000 records at a crack but only about two weeks...

That appears to be it.

I am going to try it on my bigger query but it makes absolute sense once I saw it.

Thanks a lot

I figured it out.

Inserts do not add records to the History table. Updates and Deletes do.

Thanks.

I did find that the format seemed to be wrong as suggested. So I just followed the same format as the original CREATE and it worked

CREATE TABLE [dbo].[data_load](

[ID] [INT]...

Actually, I did find that I was on 2012 instead of 2016. When I put the same CREATE on 2016 it worked.

But then I tried to use my actual...

True.

That could be an issue if you have rows that large. I have a customer where some of out tables column definitions exceed the row size by hundreds of...

Which is why, as I mentioned, I use both. I use audit tables on the tables I need to audit but I also have 5 columns on all my...

That would be correct for a many to many relationship and would be applicable only if you also want take into account that more than one employee can be at...

I think that is what the original design was doing - many addresses for one employee.

It looks like the user wanted to keep track of each address an employee was...

I would never use these as foreign keys. I agree that would be a pain.

Actually, not the case on checking audit table vs actual table. If I want to check last person checked on a table and I need to use the audit...

Depending on the logic, you might want to have multiple tables.

Just having a unique id to have one is not normally useful. What does it signify. In your...

I agree.

I usually have the ID have the same name as the table (Employee or Employees table and EmployeeID). I wouldn't put the underscore to separate the ID from...