You never mentioned how long it was taking for the update...

My experience for these two table type of single column update joins says you'll get about 4 million rows...

paolice,

Understood... I use "trial and error" a lot.  But you still haven't given me a clue as to how to use DataLength to determine the defined length of a column. ...

Thanks Antares... didn't know that. 

Hey paolice... how do you get DataLength to return the "defined length of your table's columns"?  Couldn't find a thing about that in BOL.

Errrr.... not sure just exactly what you're looking for so I offer this simple example on how to use a rowset from a stored procedure....

USE PUBS

               ...

Unless it was a text or ntext field, why would you use "DATALENGTH" over just "LEN" like some of the other replies used?   Just...

Demicog,

To remove the first character of a column, no matter what the character is, try this...

SELECT SubString(columname,2,999) --Sub the "999" with the max width of the column

To remove...

Here's a different way...

DECLARE @TestString VARCHAR(20)

DECLARE @DesiredLEN TINYINT

DECLARE @FillChar CHAR(1)

DECLARE @ResultString VARCHAR(255)

    SET @TestString = 'SomeString'

    SET @DesiredLEN = 25

    SET @FillChar   ='#' --So you can...

Heber!

I've been looking for a really simple way to "add a running number" to a SELECT for a long time!  Thank YOU!  That IS a really neat trick!

David,

Thank you for your kindness...

I've sent the code samples to 4 different people and have run it on the server at work.  In every case, your code with the <>...

David,

I'd say that I owe you an apology!  Your code does, in fact, return all of the rows expected!  I don't know what I...

Ugh... No cursors... although it can certainly be done with one ...

BJure,

When you say you tested "IT" and NOT EXISTS was faster, what is "IT"?  In other words, what was "NOT EXISTS" faster than?  Thanks.

Hey Matt,

I get it... when sorted in the order of the first column, you want to show only those rows whose value in the third column has changed from the...

All of the methods about system tables and procedures that begin with "sp_" are great... but if all you want to do is get all the columnar info to show...

Cmore,

Here's one more little "secret" of mine ... I never use BCP to import to a "live" table