I like that idea. I'd like to do some tests for real world usage. The problem is that probably half of most developer's customers are still on SQL2000. (Basic question now which I should already know) How to determine the version of SQLServer (if a valid connection exists)?


>Sergey,
>
>To your question on this...
>
>

>SELECT * FROM mytable mt1
>  WHERE NOT EXISTS (SELECT * FROM mytable WHERE id = mt1.id)
>

>
>SQL 2005 now implements the ANSI EXCEPT (and INTERSECT) operators...
>
>

>SELECT Vendor.VendorID  FROM Purchasing.Vendor Vendor
>   EXCEPT
>        SELECT VendorID FROM Purchasing.PurchaseOrderHeader POHeader
>

>
>I've read posts where people implemented EXCEPT and gained some increase in performance, though others have said that performance is about about the same and that the execution plans are about the same (maybe the first group did some additional refactoring).
>
>But either way, since you brought up readability, I think you'd agree that EXCEPT is even simpler code! ;)