When should I use Cross Apply over Inner Join? What is the main purpose of using CROSS APPLY? I have read (vaguely, through posts on the Internet) that cross apply can be more efficient when selecting over large data sets if you are partitioning. (Paging comes to mind) I also know that CROSS APPLY doesn't require a UDF as the right-table. In most INNER JOIN queries (one-to-many relationships), I could rewrite them to use CROSS APPLY, but they always give me equivalent execution plans. Can anyone give me a good example