Rob,

Just try select it out the table in the sproc and return straight to your vb.net app (via a datareader works for sure, (you are using a reador / adapter...

Hey,

Have you considered doing your update with (rowlock)?  Also, you could set your isolation levels low and do your selects with (nolock) to avoid running into a deadlock (which is...

Hi Rob

What version SQL Server are you using?  If you're on sql 2k you can do basic oerations without using chunks, just use stored procs with @var declared as ntext...

Hi

First off, check if you need to index your joining cols.

ints are supposed to be faster in joins because int comparisons are quicker than text comparisons (less to compare, no...

I reckon it'd be well worth checking out the indexing, maybe run a sql profiler and save a trace file and use the index tuning wizard if you're not fully...

Yes, but

CREATE PROCEDURE updatePage

<snip>

 @strBody text,

<snip>

AS

UPDATE Page

SET 

<snip>

 Page.strBody = @strBody,

<snip>

WHERE

 Page.intPageId = @intPageId

GO

would (does) work fine...

Luigi, on a query that'll need to handle big resultsets, the dynamic sql will do one comparison, but yours will do four... 

Grasshopper,

Just an "aside" question:

Instead of the case statement I would've done a RIGHT('00' + CAST((DATEDIFF(mi, @date2, @date1) %60) AS VARCHAR(2))

Is there a performance hit / reason why one is better than...

Functions can return scalar data or tables and can be used in joins etc with a stored procedure.  You'll need a stored procedure as your first level, but can encapsulate...

Can't you pass the decryption key in as a command line parameter?  If you can, then you could use an xp_cmdshell

What language are you using?  On SQL 2k you should be able to use a text parameter and a text column type.