Dan,

First, I don't think you can use < or > with the PK, you want not equal...

Second, I don't think you want to reverse the order just because you want the previous record... if you sort desc, and ask for previous, then you will actually get the same record you will get if you ask for next record.

Also, I don't think LAST name only is enough... the problem comes in if you say, give me the LastName >= Angely AND pk <> 'PKOFCURRENT'... This will work if you are on the First Angely, but if your PK is of the second Angely, the query will match the FIRST angely as easily as the third.

So, two solutions I can think of...

1. Page through last names... give the user a list of which of the records to select:

Next last name:

select top 1 *
from names
where cLastName > 'Angelly'
order by cLastName

Previous last name:

select top 1 *
from names
where cLastName < 'Angelly'
order by cLastName

2. This seems to be the most popular from what I have read. Since you will have the item number returned you can use it to build the next query.

CREATE TABLE #ordered
(item int identity primary key
,pk uniqueidentifier)

INSERT INTO #ordered (pk)
SELECT pk_name FROM name ORDER BY cLastName

SELECT o.item, n.* 
FROM names n
JOIN #ordered o ON n.pk_name = o.pk
WHERE item = @itemnumber

DROP TABLE #ordered

BOb