Hey Jon,

Here is my first attempt:

alter proc usp_GetSubsetOfOrders @BatchSize int = 10, @BatchesToSkip as int = 0, @OrderBy as varchar(100)='orderdate' as

--9/8/01 Andy Warren

--Alternate method of returning a subset of records, typically used in 'paging' operations

--where you only show x records per page and do not want to return the entire recordset

--to the client.

declare @RowsToIgnore int

declare @Sql varchar(1000)

set @RowsToIgnore = @BatchesToSkip * @BatchSize

set @sql='select top ' + convert(varchar(10), @BatchSize) + ' OrderDate, ShipName, ShipCity from orders where orderid > (select max(orderid) from (select top ' + convert(varchar(10), @RowsToIgnore) + ' orderid from orders order by ' + @OrderBy + ') A) order by ' + @OrderBy

exec (@Sql)

Just profiling using QA this appears to be a little faster than your solution.