As with many things, "it depends". In the situation you outlined, manipulating the values in SQL makes sense.
What you might try, if you can, is duplicating the functionality in a CLR proc and see if it's faster at it than the T-SQL version.
- Gus "GSquared", RSVP, OODA, MAP, NMVP, FAQ, SAT, SQL, DNA, RNA, UOI, IOU, AM, PM, AD, BC, BCE, USA, UN, CF, ROFL, LOL, ETC
Property of The Thread
"Nobody knows the age of the human race, but everyone agrees it's old enough to know better." - Anon