Since closing the conection in Step 7 effectively ends the session, you don't have to drop the Temp Table. It will drop all by itself. As a matter of fact, if the script is used a whole lot, there's a benefit to NOT explicitly dropping the Temp Table....

Nicely done, Nakul. I still use this method instead of Table Valued Parameters. It just seems easier....

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SAN snapshot if the servers are on the same SAN....

Nice reminder, ol' friend. Consider adding how to use CHAR(X) so that folks can use non-printable characters, as well. Might be good for a separate tip....

> Also, even if you build the tally > table using one of the slower methods, > once it is built, it will continue to > provide great speed improvements... While I absolutely agree with that, I find it incredibly ironic when someone writes an artic...

I already knew this but that's the kind of tip I like to see. Nicely done, Paresh! Definitely got a "LIKE" from me....

> Celko wrote: So much for ANSI/ISO > stanrds and common sense from > Microsoft. The correct answer is an > error message about temporal and > interval data types in calculations. Now I think you're making stuff up. Please show the exact paragra...

Although the question is certainly fun, I have a real problem with people that ask "tricky" questions on interviews for mere DBAs and SQL Developers. First, was your friend able to come up with the correct answer without actually running the code? If ...

> Thanks Jeff Moden. I would also prefer > using BCP. One of our customers wanted > to build ETL solution fully using SSIS > only. So I thought of showing SSIS's > way of doing this :) Even more impressive then, ol' friend. Learn it, use it, sha...