Jeff: You comments about using the wait has me thinking. (Always dangerous.) I understood why one would break up a delete of a lot of rows, but I didn't think one would need a 'wait' to let other statement 'get in'.

Here's how I would think it would work: There is a que of requests to get things done and the requests are taken one at a time. The delete statements are adding requests very quickly, but if any other requests come in during that time, they get added to the que and would run in their turn, making other delete requests wait their turn.

So, why would a 'wait' statement really help anything? If there is say a 10 second delay between each delete statement and no other requests come in during that time, then it is 10 seconds of wasted time. And if another request had come in during say delete iteration #2, even if delete iteration #3 pops up right away, the other request would run between iteration #2 and #3. I would think.

I really don't know how it works. (Please don't anyone take the above statements as a description of the way SQL Server works.) I'm just trying to explain why your recommendation to use a wait command is confusing to me. It doesn't fit with my understanding of how SQL Server works.

Thanks,

- JJ