Posted by Stu on 09/25/05 05:42

Scott,

Have you considered an ActiveX script in a DTS package to shred the
data periodically (you can use the SQL Scheduler to run it once a
minute). We do this to parse out syslog tables; it's kludgy, but its
consistent. While not as immediate as a trigger to populate a table,
it does keep you from modifying the vendor database (which, if your
vendor has the ability to update their database, could be a big
benefit).

Obviously, your users would have to be trained on how to enter data
consistently, and you'd probably want some sort of validation to pick
up on coded entries that don't meant your
data-followed-by-a-comma-followed-by-more-data rules. You may even
look at Regular Expressions inside your DTS package to help with that.

Just thinking aloud,
Stu

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