No probs...always figure it is better to throw the discussion up here for all to see even though oftentimes, it shows how little I have learned over the years - or at least how I just do "what works" until something necessitates a change. It is actually somewhat embarrassing as these are techniques you would think I would know - just keep plugging away...

This thread has been particularly good - the client is moving to a new database (MariaDB), which I will assist with but not code, and I have no idea yet whether their language has a rich ability to manipulate data after pulling it down - if it requires doing one query to come down to a report, the techniques I have been working out here will help.

Albert

>Thanks for this really interesting exchange, btw. There may be many ways to skin a SQL Server cat, but some are better than others!