Wow, that must have taken some time to write .

Can you post the expected output??

I only ask because it's quit easy to do set based >>

Select O1.id, O1.name, count(*) as Rank from dbo.SysObjects O1 inner join dbo.SysObjects O2 ON O2.id <= O1.id group BY...

BETWEEN is ALWAYS converted to =

What is the base select statement?

A bunch of smaller procs is almost never a bad idea. Can you send the code of the proc only?

He obviously knows since he already did update statistics.

Forgot to add the actual "boost".

As small as it is, it's because you have one less convert to do (unless the plan converts the date to varchar()).

The solution is do it client side... unless that impossible in that case. What is the base select statement?

Does RS have columns formatting like in access?

Sorry I thaught you were comparing between and .

FASTER???????? I'd like to see some numbers please.

Long story short :

You have a stored proc that's run often on the server. So the plan is cached and reused (this is when everything's fine). Now...

check openrowset, openquery and sp_addlinkedserver in bols.

I'm out of ideas... Hopefully someone else is not.