SQL Server Performance Forum – Threads Archive

Fast Option

Hi, I’m writting an application to retrieve data from a large SQL database using any of 7 different search characteristics. I would like to understand the syntax and configuration required to get the first data rows retrieved by the query to display quickly while the rest of the query completes. I understand that I should be able to use the option (FAST 50) in my select statement to get the first 50 rows but have not been able to get the FAST option working properly. Any suggestions?
Thanks

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How about TOP option?
Luis Martin
Moderator
SQL-Server-Performance.com

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The FAST option differs from TOP in that FAST gives priority to returning the first n records to the client as soon as possible, and then continuing with the rest of the query. It isnt always possible that FAST will make a difference, depends if certain parts of the execution plan can be serialised in such a way. Also when using FAST it is sometimes at the expense of the performance of the query as a whole. select field1, field2 from MyTable OPTION (FAST 100) or select TOP 10000 field1, field2 from MyTable OPTION (FAST 100) etc

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