Calculations

I have to perform a number of calculations on a table but these
calculations need intermediate values ( like for example I have to
first calculate one value before I can use it in the next step of the
calcualtion). There are two ways of doing this:
1. Have columns for intermediate values ( it is possible as my
calculations are on a temp tbl) and use update statements. One update
statement for every step in the calculation.
2. Have a cursor, loop through the resultset and do the calculations
like we would in a programming language like C#.
Which one is better? Are updates ( a number of them) faster than a
cursor?
Thanks.Cursors are usually slower than an SQL operation that updates all the rows i
n
one go.
I would only use a cursor for this sort of operation if there were any
locking issues.
Are Riksaasen
"John Smith" wrote:

> I have to perform a number of calculations on a table but these
> calculations need intermediate values ( like for example I have to
> first calculate one value before I can use it in the next step of the
> calcualtion). There are two ways of doing this:
> 1. Have columns for intermediate values ( it is possible as my
> calculations are on a temp tbl) and use update statements. One update
> statement for every step in the calculation.
> 2. Have a cursor, loop through the resultset and do the calculations
> like we would in a programming language like C#.
> Which one is better? Are updates ( a number of them) faster than a
> cursor?
> Thanks.
>