Wow, didn't expect that. Thanks. Can I expect an email from you shortly?

Just one thing, it's not Mr. The real name is Gail.

A female DBA named GilaMonster?

GilaMonster is the nick I've used on forums since university days.

Surprised there's such a thing as a female DBA? Or curious about the nickname?

Honestly, I'm more of a db developer than a DBA.

... as on an admittedly limited sample size you .SQL dudes certainly like to work harder!

BTW I am curious that this part of several of the proffered statements will work in SQL Server ...

WHERE P1.FieldX IS NOT NULL
AND P2.FieldX IS NOT NULL

In ASE it doesn't behave as a newbie might expect but the COALESCE() function seems to squeak around this by deferring the check until both outer joins have been evaluated.

Finally I was surprised to see the comment "this is one key issue that nobody seemed to pick up on" regarding the use of space during the WIP phase. This for me was _the_ critical issue ... hence the rowcount limiter to manage log consumption. Perhaps I didn't elaborate sufficiently or explicitly state assumptions like truncate log on checkpoint being set.

Anyway I trust your server is now feeling better after its long squawk! Cheers Frank.