DECLARE @tmp TABLE(Id INT NOT NULL IDENTITY(1, 1), Code CHAR(8) NOT NULL);

UPDATE MyTable
SET column1 = @value1
OUTPUT inserted.Code INTO @tmp (Code)
WHERE type = 1 AND status = 0 AND Code IN (
    SELECT TOP(@count) Code FROM MyTable WITH (READPAST, XLOCK) WHERE type = 1 AND status = 0
);

DECLARE @tmp TABLE(Id INT NOT NULL IDENTITY(1, 1), Code CHAR(8) NOT NULL);

UPDATE MyTable
SET column1 = @value1
OUTPUT inserted.Code INTO @tmp (Code)
WHERE type = 1 AND status = 0 AND Code IN (
    SELECT TOP(@count) Code FROM MyTable WITH (READPAST, XLOCK) WHERE type = 1 AND status = 0 ORDER BY PrimaryKeyColumn
);

quote:

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Originally posted by DonAtWork

TOP means nothing without an order by. The first one executes instantly because the TOP does pretty much nothing. The second one is doing a TRUE TOP because it has an ORDER BY clause. It takes the server a little time to actually order the records. You can improve the time with some indexing, i would bet.

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