Kevin,

I never said "don't keep both in your holsters".

But you did say that you prefer to pull the pearl handled one if at all possible... didn't you? ;-)

The original points were that "stored procs aren't as flexible, they won't produce as good a query"....the actual data doesn't seem to bear that out.

Well, without wanting to talk down SP, because I think I might well use one for the scenario you raised, though with more % constructs that I know the optimizer will ignore: with about 10 seconds work I can alter my SPT to make it look for null field values. How about your SP? ;-) And with SPT I can sling together barn door SQL that runs like billy-o without having to intricately assess the optimizer in case of surprises. We both know that KISS is the optimizer's friend.

I actually agree with a few of the points Walter is mkaing - except mainly for the assumptions about the execution plan.

IMHO this is a fabulous discussion. Go KG! Go WM!