http://blogs.msdn.com/sqlprogrammability/archive/2008/03/18/increase-your-sql-server-performance-by-replacing-cursors-with-set-operations.aspxYou have probably heard many times, from different sources, that as a best practice; avoid using TSQL cursors. During a recent visit to a partner we ran into a common cursor case, which I wanted to use as an example to demonstrate why you should avoiden-USCommunityServer 2.1 SP1 (Build: 61025.2)http://blogs.msdn.com/sqlprogrammability/archive/2008/03/18/increase-your-sql-server-performance-by-replacing-cursors-with-set-operations.aspx#8324383Wed, 19 Mar 2008 04:33:40 GMT91d46819-8472-40ad-a661-2c78acb4018c:8324383MSDN Blog Postings » Increase your SQL Server performance by replacing cursors with set operations<p>PingBack from <a rel="nofollow" target="_new" href="http://msdnrss.thecoderblogs.com/2008/03/18/increase-your-sql-server-performance-by-replacing-cursors-with-set-operations-2/">http://msdnrss.thecoderblogs.com/2008/03/18/increase-your-sql-server-performance-by-replacing-cursors-with-set-operations-2/</a></p> http://blogs.msdn.com/sqlprogrammability/archive/2008/03/18/increase-your-sql-server-performance-by-replacing-cursors-with-set-operations.aspx#8770853Fri, 25 Jul 2008 04:52:25 GMT91d46819-8472-40ad-a661-2c78acb4018c:8770853LenInNZ<p>A further improvement may be to do chunks of N(100000) at a time by using SET ROWCOUNT or TOP and a WHILE @@RowCount&gt;0 with m.ENTY_ID != t.EntityId</p>