thanks for the replies! both seem perfectly valid options! having read up on snapshot isolation, it seems like this will be the simplest and easiest-to-maintain solution for my problem.

any apparent...

there is no code i am having issues with at the moment.

this is the situation the application is in currently:

there are a number of tables used for reporting purposes. when...

noone any idea?...

i tried doing SELECT * FROM dbo.SPTEST WHERE ID = 5 but it will still wait untill the sp finished though