Be ware that even CASE does not always provide deterministic order of evaluation with short circuiting. See http://bartduncansql.wordpress.com/2011/03/03/dont-depend-on-expression-short-circuiting-in-t-sql-not-even-with-case/[/url]. (It'll probably work for the example shown above, but be aware that this depends on undocumented behavior that is subject to change.)