change ID number to smooth out duplicates in a table - sql-server-2000

Question

I have run into this problem that I'm trying to solve: Every day I import new records into a table that have an ID number.
Most of them are new (have never been seen in the system before) but some are coming in again. What I need to do is to append an alpha to the end of the ID number if the number is found in the archive, but only if the data in the row is different from the data in the archive, and this needs to be done sequentially, IE, if 12345 is seen a 2nd time with different data, I change it to 12345A, and if 12345 is seen again, and is again different, I need to change it to 12345B, etc.
Originally I tried using a where loop where it would put all the 'seen again' records in a temp table, and then assign A first time, then delete those, assign B to what's left, delete those, etc., till the temp table was empty, but that hasn't worked out.
Alternately, I've been thinking of trying subqueries as in:
update table
set IDNO= (select max idno from archive) plus 1
Any suggestions?

Answer 1

How about this as an idea? Mind you, this is basically pseudocode so adjust as you see fit.
With "src" as the table that all the data will ultimately be inserted into, and "TMP" as your temporary table.. and this is presuming that the ID column in TMP is a double.
do
update tmp set id = id + 0.01 where id in (select id from src);
until no_rows_changed;
alter table TMP change id into id varchar(255);
update TMP set id = concat(int(id), chr((id - int(id)) * 100 + 64);
insert into SRC select * from tmp;

Answer 2

What happens when you get to 12345Z?
Anyway, change the table structure slightly, here's the recipe:
Drop any indices on ID.
Split ID (apparently varchar) into ID_Num (long int) and ID_Alpha (varchar, not null). Make the default value for ID_Alpha an empty string ('').
So, 12345B (varchar) becomes 12345 (long int) and 'B' (varchar), etc.
Create a unique, ideally clustered, index on columns ID_Num and ID_Alpha.
Make this the primary key. Or, if you must, use an auto-incrementing integer as a pseudo primary key.
Now, when adding new data, finding duplicate ID number's is trivial and the last ID_Alpha can be obtained with a simple max() operation.
Resolving duplicate ID's should now be an easier task, using either a while loop or a cursor (if you must).
But, it should also be possible to avoid the "Row by agonizing row" (RBAR), and use a set-based approach. A few days of reading Jeff Moden articles, should give you ideas in that regard.

Answer 3

Here is my final solution:
update a
set IDnum=b.IDnum
from tempimiportable A inner join
(select * from archivetable
where IDnum in
(select max(IDnum) from archivetable
where IDnum in
(select IDnum from tempimporttable)
group by left(IDnum,7)
)
) b
on b.IDnum like a.IDnum + '%'
WHERE
*row from tempimport table = row from archive table*
to set incoming rows to the same IDnum as old rows, and then
update a
set patient_account_number = case
when len((select max(IDnum) from archive where left(IDnum,7) = left(a.IDnum,7)))= 7 then a.IDnum + 'A'
else left(a.IDnum,7) + char(ascii(right((select max(IDnum) from archive where left(IDnum,7) = left(a.IDnum,7)),1))+1)
end
from tempimporttable a
where not exists ( *select rows from archive table* )
I don't know if anyone wants to delve too far into this, but I appreciate contructive criticism...