Tag Archives: Stored Procedure

How to check if a Stored Procedure exists in Sql Server

Sql Server, , , , , , , , , , ,

Many a times we come across a scenario where we need to execute some code based on whether a Stored Procedure exists or not. There are different ways of identifying the Stored Procedure existence in Sql Server, in this article will list out the commonly used approaches. Let me know which approach you use and reason for the same.

To demonstrate these different approaches let us create a sample database with a Table and a Stored Procedure by the below script:

CREATE DATABASE SqlHintsDemoDB
GO
USE SqlHintsDemoDB
GO
CREATE TABLE dbo.Customers (CustId INT, Name NVARCHAR(50))
GO
CREATE PROCEDURE dbo.GetCustomers(@CustId AS INT)
AS
BEGIN
	SELECT * FROM  dbo.Customers WHERE CustId = @CustId
END
GO

[ALSO READ] How to check if a Table exists in Sql Server

Approach 1: Using sys.procedures catalog view

We can write a query like below to check if a GetCustomers Stored Procedure exists in the current database in any schema.

USE SqlHintsDemoDB
GO
IF EXISTS(SELECT 1 FROM sys.procedures 
          WHERE Name = 'GetCustomers')
BEGIN
	PRINT 'Stored Procedure Exists'
END

RESULT:
Check Stored Procedure Existence using sys.procedures

The above query checks the existence of the GetCustomers Stored Procedure across all the schemas in the current database. Instead of this if you want to check the existence of the Stored Procedure in a specified Schema then we can re-write the above query as below:

USE SqlHintsDemoDB
GO
IF EXISTS(SELECT 1 FROM sys.procedures 
          WHERE object_id = OBJECT_ID(N'dbo.GetCustomers'))
BEGIN
	PRINT 'Stored Procedure Exists'
END

RESULT:
Check Stored Procedure Existence using sys.procedures2

If you want to check the existence of a stored procedure in a database other than the current contextual database, then we can use the script like below:

USE MASTER
GO
IF EXISTS(SELECT 1 FROM SqlHintsDemoDB.sys.procedures
 WHERE object_id=OBJECT_ID(N'SqlHintsDemoDB.dbo.GetCustomers'))
BEGIN
	PRINT 'Stored Procedure Exists'
END

RESULT:
Check Stored Procedure Existence using sys.procedures3

Note: sys.procedures catalog view contains a row for each object of the below type:

Type Description
P SQL Stored Procedure
PC Assembly (CLR) stored-procedure
RF Replication-filter-procedure
X Extended stored procedure

If you are looking for only Sql Stored Procedure, then in sys.procedures catalog views query you can add the filter AND condition as: Type = N’P’.

[ALSO READ] How to check if a record exists in table

Approach 2: Using sys.objects catalog view

sys.procedures catalog view inherits the rows from the sys.objects catalog view, sys.objects catalog view is referred to as base view where as sys.procedures is referred to as derived view. sys.procedures will return the rows only for the stored procedures whereas sys.objects view apart from returning the rows for stored procedures, it returns rows for the objects like: tables, views etc.

We can write a script like below to check the existence of a stored procedure in the current contextual database:

IF EXISTS (SELECT * FROM sys.objects
            WHERE object_id = OBJECT_ID(N'dbo.GetCustomers')
                    AND type IN ( N'P', N'PC',N'X',N'RF')) 
BEGIN
	PRINT 'Stored Procedure Exists'
END

RESULT:
Check Stored Procedure Existence using sys.objects

If you want check the existence of a stored procedure in a database other than the contextual database then we can re-write the above query by using three part naming convention as shown below:

USE master
GO
IF EXISTS (SELECT * FROM SqlHintsDemoDB.sys.objects
 WHERE object_id=OBJECT_ID(N'SqlHintsDemoDB.dbo.GetCustomers')
      AND type IN ( N'P', N'PC',N'X',N'RF')) 
BEGIN
	PRINT 'Stored Procedure Exists'
END

RESULT:
Check Stored Procedure Existence using sys.objects2

[ALSO READ] How to check if a Temp table exists

Approach 3: Using sys.sql_modules Catalog View

We can use the sys.sql_modules catalog view to check the existence of the Stored Procedure as shown below:

USE SqlHintsDemoDB
GO
IF EXISTS (SELECT 1 FROM sys.sql_modules
   WHERE object_id =  OBJECT_ID(N'dbo.GetCustomers') 
   AND OBJECTPROPERTY(object_id, N'IsProcedure') = 1) 
BEGIN
	PRINT 'Stored Procedure Exists'
END

RESULT
Check Stored Procedure Existence using sys.sql_modules

[ALSO READ] How to check if a Database exists

Approach 4: Using OBJECT_ID() function

We can use OBJECT_ID() function like below to check if a GetCustomers Stored procedure exists in the current database.

USE SqlHintsDemoDB
GO
IF OBJECT_ID(N'dbo.GetCustomers', N'P') IS NOT NULL
BEGIN
	PRINT 'Stored Procedure Exists'
END

RESULT:
Check Stored Procedure Existence using OBJECT_ID function

Specifying the Database Name and Schema Name parts for the Stored Procedure Name is optional. But specifying Database Name and Schema Name provides an option to check the existence of the stored procedure in the specified database and within a specified schema, instead of checking in the current database across all the schemas. The below query shows that, even though the current database is MASTER database, we can check the existence of the GetCustomers stored procedure in the dbo schema in the SqlHintsDemoDB database.

USE MASTER
GO
IF OBJECT_ID(N'SqlHintsDemoDB.dbo.GetCustomers', N'P')
     IS NOT NULL
BEGIN
	PRINT 'Stored Procedure Exists'
END

RESULT:
Check Stored Procedure Existence using OBJECT_ID function2

[ALSO READ] How to check if a View exists

Approach 5: Using INFORMATION_SCHEMA.ROUTINES View

We can use the INFORMATION_SCHEMA.ROUTINES view to check the existence of the stored procedure as shown below:

USE SqlHintsDemoDB
GO
IF EXISTS (SELECT 1 FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.ROUTINES 
  WHERE ROUTINE_NAME = 'GetCustomers' 
        AND ROUTINE_TYPE = 'PROCEDURE') 
BEGIN
    PRINT 'Stored Procedure Exists'
END

RESULT
Check Stored Procedure Existence using INFORMATION_SCHEMA.ROUTINES

Approach 6: Avoid Using sys.sysobjects System table

We should avoid using sys.sysobjects System Table directly, direct access to it will be deprecated in some future versions of the Sql Server. As per Microsoft BOL link, Microsoft is suggesting to use the catalog views sys.objects/sys.procedures/sys.sql_modules instead of sys.sysobjects system table directly to check the existence of the stored procedure.

USE SqlHintsDemoDB
GO
IF EXISTS(SELECT 1 FROM sys.sysobjects  
     WHERE id = OBJECT_ID(N'dbo.GetCustomers') AND xtype=N'P' )
BEGIN
    PRINT 'Stored Procedure Exists'
END

RESULT:
Check Stored Procedure Existence using sys.sysobjects

[ALSO READ] :
How to check if a Database exists
How to check if a Table exists
How to check if a View exists
How to check if Temp table exists
How to check if a record exists in table

How to Insert Stored Procedure result into a table in Sql Server?

Sql Server, Tips/Tricks,

Today, I was needed to dump the Stored Procedure result into a temp table.  Below example illustrates how this can be achieved:

First let us create a stored stored procedure which returns result set:

CREATE DATABASE DEMOSQLHINTS
GO
USE DEMOSQLHINTS
GO
CREATE TABLE dbo.Employee(ID INT IDENTITY(1,1),Name VARCHAR(50))

INSERT INTO dbo.Employee(Name)
VALUES('BASAVARAJ BIRADAR'),
('SHREE BIRADAR')
GO

CREATE PROCEDURE dbo.GetEmployees
AS
BEGIN
SELECT * FROM dbo.Employee WITH(NOLOCK)
END
GO
EXEC dbo.GetEmployees
GO

Result:

ID Name
———– ————————————
1 BASAVARAJ BIRADAR
2 SHREE BIRADAR

(2 row(s) affected)

Below script shows how to move the result of the SP GetEmployees to a temporary table #TempEmployees

-- First create the table to which we want to push the SP result
CREATE TABLE #TempEmployees(EmpId int,EmpName Varchar(50))
GO
-- Insert result from the SP to temp table
INSERT INTO #TempEmployees
EXEC dbo.GetEmployees
GO
--Verify the Insert records
SELECT * FROM #TempEmployees

Result:

EmpId EmpName
———– ————————————————–
1 BASAVARAJ BIRADAR
2 SHREE BIRADAR

Let us see another example where we Insert result from a Stored Procedure with Parameter into a temporary table

--First create a stored procedure with parameter
CREATE PROCEDURE GetEmployeeDetails
(@id AS INT)
AS
BEGIN
SELECT * FROM dbo.Employee (NOLOCK)
WHERE Id = @id
END
GO
--Execute SP with parameter and dump the result into a temp table
INSERT INTO #TempEmployees
EXEC GetEmployeeDetails 2

GO
-- Verify the inserted records
SELECT * FROM #TempEmployees


Result:

EmpId EmpName
———– ————————-
2 SHREE BIRADAR

Note: All the examples in this article are tested on Sql Server 2008 version

Difference between Stored Procedure and User Defined Function in Sql Server

Differences, Sql Server, , , , , , , , ,

Below are the some of the major differences between User Defined Function and Stored Procedure in Sql Server.

To know more on the User-Defined functions with examples please visit the article: User-Defined function.
To know more on the Stored Procedure with examples please visit the article: Stored Procedure.

Sl. No. User Defined function Stored Procedure
1 Function must return a value. Stored procedure may or not return values.
2 Will allow only Select statement, it will not allow us to use DML statements. Can have select statements as well as DML statements such as insert, update, delete
etc
3 It will allow only input parameters, doesn’t support output parameters. It can have both input and output parameters.
4 It will not allow us to use try-catch blocks. For exception handling we can use try catch blocks.
5 Transactions are not allowed within functions. Can use transactions within Stored procefures.
6 We can use only table variables, it will not allow using temporary tables. Can use both table variables aswell as temporary table in it.
7 Stored procedures can’t be called from function. Stored Procedures can call functions.
8 Functions can be called from select statement. Procedures can’t be called from Select/Where/Having etc statements. Execute/Exec
statement can be used to call/execute stored procedure.
9 UDF can be used in join clause as a result set. Procedures can’t be used in Join clause

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Varchar Vs NVarchar
Varchar Vs Varchar(MAX)
Char Vs Varchar
Union Vs Union All
DateTime Vs DateTime2
SET QUOTED_IDENTIFIER ON Vs OFF
Primary Key Vs Unique Key
RAISERROR Vs THROW
Temporary Table Vs Table Variable
LEN() Vs DATALENGTH()
Sequence Vs Identity