>>>Is this (see code snippet below) the most efficient way to check if there is a row in the table with a given PK value?
>>>
>>>

>>>IF ( SELECT COUNT(*) FROM MyTable WHERE PkId = @PkId ) < 1
>>>BEGIN
>>>	RAISERROR('The record you are looking for aint there.',16,1)
>>>END
>>>

>>>
>>>Einar
>>
>>

IF NOT EXISTS(SELECT [PK] FROM [MyTable] WHERE [PK] = @PK) ...

>>
>>If this query is used a lot, there should be a nonclustered index on PK.
>
>Thanks. Your way looks cleaner than my code.
>
>Einar

Use IF EXISTS instead of COUNT() whenever possible. The performance benefits can be extreme when there is no index for the WHERE clause. And when there is an index, there is still a performance benefit.