Here is the explanation...

A stack needs to be implemented, using a table as the storage mechanism. The situation is that the table contains a list of reports that need to be built. Obviously, we don't want several processes each building the same report. The Sybase stored procedure allows multiple clients to get up to @max_cnt records for processing with each client getting a unique set of records for processing. The Sybase stored procedure was built for a different application. What I'm wondering is if there is an improved way in SQL Server 2000 to accomplish the same thing.

Bob Horkay