Select rows and Update same rows for locking?

Question

I need to write a procedure that will allow me to select x amount of rows and at the same time update those rows so the calling application will know those records are locked an

Answer 1

As you suggested, you can use the OUTPUT clause effectively:

Live demo: https://data.stackexchange.com/stackoverflow/query/8058/so3319842

UPDATE #tbl
SET locked = 1
OUTPUT INSERTED.*
WHERE id IN (
    SELECT TOP 1 id
    FROM #tbl
    WHERE locked = 0
    ORDER BY id
)​

Also see this article:

http://www.sqlmag.com/article/tsql3/more-top-troubles-using-top-with-insert-update-and-delete.aspx