Here's what I am looking at. I have a text file, tab delimited, that I need
to bring into a SQL Server 2000 table.

For the sake of arguement, the file will be like:

Number,Code,Notes

I need it to search the table, find the matching number and Code, then
append the notes. The caveat is that the final product, (SQL Side) cannot
exceed 1000 characters, so I need to make sure that the COMBINED Notes entry
does exceed 1000, if so, make it an exception for a report then move on to
the next item.

What's the best way to do this, as with VB I can think of several ways, but
doing it all in SQL Server is making me draw a blank. Any help will be
greatly appreciated.

I would

Import the Text file into a working table
Match with the real table on Key vals

Do an UPDATE on the real table where the combined LEN() of the working table
notes field and the real table notes field < 1000.
Insert the other key values into a table of Exceptions.



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Allan Mitchell MCSE,MCDBA, (Microsoft SQL Server MVP)
www.allisonmitchell.com - Expert SQL Server Consultancy.
www.SQLDTS.com - The site for all your DTS needs.
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for SQL Server professionals - http://www.sqlpass.org


"Acral" <Notme (AT) ever (DOT) com> wrote

I'll add that DTS or a simple import of a text file is probably over kill -
use BCP
-noah


"Allan Mitchell" <allan (AT) no-spam (DOT) sqldts.com> wrote