Thanks Kenneth - it was informative. I will make the corrections.

I could not understand this part:

INSERT INTO TargetTable (ColumnList)

 SELECT ColumnList FROM SourceTable s

 LEFT JOIN TargetTable t ON s.PrimaryKey=t.PrimaryKey

 WHERE t.PrimaryKey IS...

OK

I am actually using the identity col approach at the moment. But there will be situations when I cannot use Identity col all the time. I have different tables that...

Hi Remi

I am writing a stored procedure that opens a cursor with all the records (select * from @table) of the tablename supplied as parameter by the user. It formates...

Fantastic - thanks a lot Brendthess. I really appreciate it

I mean the n (max value) from the result set - can that be removed?

Thats was fantastic, awesome, brilliant - thanks a lot Remi!

Is it possible to remove the Max co-ordinate from the result set? It needs to be removed from Group By as...

Thanks for the reply Remi - but it is not the Minimum it is the first value in the group that I want in the result set.

And about locks - they are normal. Its the time for which the locks are held determines if system performs good or bad. Read BOL

Andy there is no straight answer to your question. SP: Recomple event tells u if the stored proc is compiled more than once, which causes performance problems. SP should always...

The columns in the where clause are good candidates. U can use Index Wizard to build indexes based on sql scripts.

What service pack are you on?