The Fastest Way To Perform An Update ... Advice Needed :)

Hi all,

I have a situation where my Visual C# application presents a number of fields. In order to update a student object, I wish to call a stored proc. 1 or more fields can be updated... And If one is left null, then I don't want to update it, but instead I want to keep the old value.

I am really wondering if I am approaching this the right way. The following stored proc does what I want it to do, however I'm thinking there may be a faster way...

Here it is:

-- Update a student, by ID.

DROP PROCEDURE p_UpdateStudent

CREATE PROCEDURE p_UpdateStudent

@ID INT,

@NewFName VARCHAR(25),

@NewOName VARCHAR(25),

@NewLName VARCHAR(25),

@NewDOB DATETIME,

@NewENumber VARCHAR(10),

@NewContactAID INT,

@NewContactBID INT

AS

BEGIN

SET NOCOUNT ON;

-- DECLARE THE OLD VALUES

DECLARE @FName AS VARCHAR(25)

DECLARE @OName AS VARCHAR(25)

DECLARE @LName AS VARCHAR(25)

DECLARE @DOB AS DATETIME

DECLARE @ENumber AS VARCHAR(10)

DECLARE @ContactAID AS INT

DECLARE @ContactBID AS INT

-- Get all of the old values

SELECT @FName = FName FROM TBL_Student WHERE ID = 10000

SELECT @OName = OName FROM TBL_Student WHERE ID = 10000

SELECT @LName = LName FROM TBL_Student WHERE ID = 10000

SELECT @DOB = DOB FROM TBL_Student WHERE ID = 10000

SELECT @ENumber = ENumber FROM TBL_Student WHERE ID = 10000

SELECT @ContactAID = ContactAID FROM TBL_Student WHERE ID = 10000

SELECT @ContactBID = ContactBID FROM TBL_Student WHERE ID = 10000



-- USE ISNULL to set all of the new parameters to the provided values only if they are not null

-- Keep the old ones otherwise.

SET @NewFName = ISNULL(@NewFName, @FName)

SET @NewOName = ISNULL(@NewOName, @OName)

SET @NewLName = ISNULL(@NewLName, @LName)

SET @NewDOB = ISNULL(@NewDOB, @DOB)

SET @NewENumber = ISNULL(@NewENumber, @ENumber)

SET @NewContactAID = ISNULL(@NewContactAID, @ContactAID)

SET @NewContactBID = ISNULL(@NewContactBID, @ContactBID)

-- Do the update

UPDATE TBL_Student

SET FName = @NewFName,

OName = @NewOName,

LName = @NewLName,

DOB = @NewDOB,

ENumber = @NewENumber,

ContactAID = @NewContactAID,

ContactBID = @NewContactBID

WHERE

ID = @ID

END

GO

So yeah it works. But As you can see I wish to keep an old copy of the values to perform checks pre update....

Is there any faster way, or am I on the right track? I need a pro's advice :) (before i write all of my procs!!)

Thanks all.



Chris