procedure TForm1.SlowLoadingIntoStringList(StringList: TStringList);

begin

 StringList.Clear;

 with SourceTable do

 begin

  Open;

  DisableControls;

  try

  while not EOF do

  begin

  StringList.Add(FieldByName('OriginalData').AsString);

  ;

  end;

  finally

  EnableControls;

  Close;

  end;

 end;

end;

{ This is much, much faster }

procedure TForm1.QuickLoadingIntoStringList(StringList: TStringList);

begin

 with CacheTable do

 begin

  Open;

  try

  StringList.Text := FieldByName('Data').AsString;

  finally

  Close;

  end;

 end;

end;

{ How can this be done?

 In Microsoft SQL Server 7, you can write a stored procedure that updates every night

 a cache table that holds all the data you want in a single column and row.

 In this example, you get the data from a SourceTable and put it all in a Cachetable.

 The CacheTable has one blob column and must have only one row.

 Here it is the SQL code: }

Create Table CacheTable

(Data Text NULL)

GO

Create

procedure PopulateCacheTable as

 begin

 set NOCOUNT on

 DECLARE @ptrval binary(16), @Value varchar(600) -

 - a good Value for the expected maximum Length

 - - You must set 'select into/bulkcopy' option to True in order to run this sp

 DECLARE @dbname nvarchar(128)

 set @dbname = db_name()

EXEC sp_dboption @dbname, 'select into/bulkcopy', 'true'

- - Declare a cursor

DECLARE scr CURSOR for

SELECT OriginalData + char(13) + char(10) - - each line in a TStringList is

separated by a #13#10

FROM  SourceTable

- - The CacheTable Table must have only one record

if EXISTS (SELECT * FROM CacheTable)

Update CacheTable set Data = ''

else

Insert CacheTable VALUES('')

- - Get a Pointer to the field we want to Update

SELECT @ptrval = TEXTPTR(Data) FROM CacheTable

Open scr

FETCH  FROM scr INTO @Value

while @ @FETCH_STATUS = 0

begin - - This UPDATETEXT appends each Value to the

end

of the blob field

UPDATETEXT CacheTable.Data @ptrval NULL 0 @Value

FETCH  FROM scr INTO @Value

end

Close scr

DEALLOCATE scr

- - Reset this option to False

EXEC sp_dboption @dbname, 'select into/bulkcopy', 'false'

end

GO