Question

I am using SET ROWCOUNT because the value comes from a parameter into my procedure.

SET ROWCOUNT @take 

SELECT * FROM Something

SET ROWCOUNT 0

Is it possible to another procedure executes at the same time and get the rowcount setting, or is it perfectly safe to use it on a stored procedure?

Answer 1

Rowcount is specific to your current scope, so you are safe there. However, Books Online tells me this (which may or may not affect your needs):

Using SET ROWCOUNT will not affect
DELETE, INSERT, and UPDATE statements
in the next release of SQL Server. Do
not use SET ROWCOUNT with DELETE,
INSERT, and UPDATE statements in new
development work, and plan to modify
applications that currently use it.
Also, for DELETE, INSERT, and UPDATE
statements that currently use SET
ROWCOUNT, we recommend that you
rewrite them to use the TOP syntax.
For more information, see DELETE
(Transact-SQL), INSERT (Transact-SQL),
or UPDATE (Transact-SQL).

TOP can use variables too and now can be used in INSERT,UPDATE and DELETE statments. (Hey I learned something new today.) Look up how to use TOP with variables in Books online.