>So, for displaying data, I'll select from my data, and then populate my denormalized datatable with the data I select in a straightfoward way. At least, that's been my thinking.

Very good thinking indeed... I've seen a lot of what I would consider "very heavy processing" on ADO.net Data Objects (DataSets, DataTables, etc...) and even in the worst cases the speed has been optimal. I guess that is because the object is in server memory when the processing is being done.

As a side thought, you may even want to look at Data Warehousing depeding on how FRESH the data has to be...? Could be more effort that it's worth though.

>I guess the datagrid with gawdawful number of columns is my best route. Processing in and out of the denormalized structure will be a bother, but that doesn't worry. I'm a little concerned with the quality of the user experience, though, since I've come to learn just how new to computers some of my audience is.

A grid is probably the most efficient means of displaying the data in terms of the page size being sent to the end user. If you use simply numbers as the column headers (to represent the days 1 through 31), that may help to reduce the width of the grid. Infragistics offers a very nice grid as part of their NetAdvantage product (http://www.infragistics.com/products/grids.asp) but that may be overkill (both price wise and feature wise) for the project.

>Thank you, though for this example. I'm just starting to use SQL Server for another client, and so have a lot to learn, and I know that this will be very helpful example.

When you first get into SQL, Enterprise Manager is great because it offers a visual method of doing many things. As you progress along though, you may find Query Analyzer a good alternative as it allows a bit more flexibility. The two pieces together make a great duo. However, for just starting Enterprise Manager is a great time saver.

>Next, in order to get the task totals per row, you could use the code behind / ItemDataBound event of the grid... Summing each "Day" column to derive the value of the total column, per row. ** Does this require a round trip to the server, though? I'd considered simply having a button to update the row and column totals so the user doesn't have to be bother with a round-trip every time they make an entry.

I was thinking that you were going to use the grid for display only since you are going to have to denormalize the data. The ItemDataBound event is a server side event... However, the first time the page loads it is still going to fire. Also if you are going to be doing edits in the grid, a trip to the server is going to be made both when the user goes into edit mode and when the user updates the data. The ItemDataBound event will fire at both of those times. You may as well utilize it. From my experince the time difference is negligable.

Hope that helps...