Sorry I've only just replied to your posts as I've been on leave. the reason it was only 50 on my example is that it was an existing SP which initially was used to send data to a WCF program which at that time would only handle small amounts of data. With examples you all have been showing me I upped the figure from 50 to 5000 and I'm now using the data to populate an Access database instead. It's also something I could be using for other projects in the future. By using your submissions I've been also been learning more abour SQL server which I find immensely interesting. As for Mister.Magoo's about using the OUTPUT statement, I'd never thoughts of that, tried it, and it works, thanks. Thanks to everyone who contibuted to my problem