Thanks, Fabio. We settled on a solution very similar to yours.


>Hi David,
>
>you can use exclusive lock and skip locked for implement max performance.
>
>A TRACE ( for direct code or a stored proc ):
>

>BEGIN TRAN
>-- if EMAIL format change sporadically you can use a @DEQUEUED  table
>SELECT TOP 10 * INTO #DEQUEUED FROM EMAIL WITH (READPAST,XLOCK) WHERE STATUS='OP'
>UPDATE EMAIL SET STATUS='SE' WHERE EMAILPRIMARYKEY IN ( SELECT EMAILPRIMARYKEY FROM #DEQUEUED )
>SELECT * FROM #DEQUEUED
>DROP TABLE #DEQUEUED
>COMMIT
>

>
>Fabio