I am stuck with the following stored procedure where I can't seem to get the IF EXISTS and DROP parts to work, leading to a failure in the SELECT INTO part.
Both database A and database B are on the same server, I have full permissions in both databases. The stored procedure is in database A.
I have copied the IF EXISTS syntax from somewhere (can't remember where) so I don't really understand the structure of it. I gathered the problem lies in the IF EXISTS statement because when I try and execute IF EXISTS component of the stored procedure, I get something if I have selected DatabaseB in the top left-hand corner drop-down box in Management Studio but if I have DatabaseA selected in there, I get nothing.
I have also tried to run similarly structured stored procedures in DatabaseA (where there is an IF EXISTS and DROP statements pointing to DatabaseB followed by a SELECT INTO from DatabaseA into DatabaseB) and I have got some to work before, while some others failed. I cant seem to pinpoint what is causing it to work sometimes and sometimes not.
USE [DatabaseA]
GO
SET ANSI_NULLS ON
GO
SET QUOTED_IDENTIFIER ON
GO
--DROP TABLE A if exists--
IF EXISTS (SELECT * FROM sys.objects
WHERE object_id = OBJECT_ID(N'DatabaseB.dbo.TableA') AND type IN (N'U'))
DROP TABLE DatabaseB.dbo.TableA
--Select INTO TableA on DatabaseB--
SELECT *
INTO DatabaseB.dbo.TableA
FROM DatabaseA.dbo.TableA
I usually use if object_id('databaseB.dbo.TableA') is not null instead of the exists check to avoid having to fully qualify sys.objrcts.
I'm not even sure I can describe this adequately, but start with this: I've got a stored procedure that handles getting a lot of data and for concurrently, I've set it to do the following:
Get the highest batch # as a variable
update all unprocessed records with that batch #
select all those records
mark them as processed
(Code will be shown below)
This stored procedure is being executed by GoAnywhere, a data transfer tool. GoAnywhere is executing the query fine, and is even showing that it's retrieving the right set of records, but is bombing out at the point where it should be using the result set from the select statement to update the destination database. The error it's getting is that it can't convert an integer into a rowset.
I've figured out that, in SQL Server, a stored procedure always returns a 1 or a 0 as a return value, in addition to the result set. For some reason, GoAnywhere seems to be picking that up instead of the result of the SQL statement.
I've determined that if I comment out the lines of code commented out in the code sample below, GoAnywhere picks up the result set and handles it nicely.
My question: is there a way to modify this stored procedure so that the default return value will be the result set instead of the 1 or zero, short of breaking this up into multiple stored procedure calls?
Alternative question: if I get really lucky and there are GoAnywhere experts viewing this, I'd be just as happy with how to get GoAnywhere to ignore the return value and accept the result set as-is.
Stored procedure code:
USE [myDB]
GO
/****** Object: StoredProcedure [dbo].[myProcedure] Script Date: 10/31/2014 13:42:41 ******/
SET ANSI_NULLS ON
GO
SET QUOTED_IDENTIFIER ON
GO
ALTER PROCEDURE myProcedure
AS
DECLARE #BatchId int;
DECLARE #BatchDate datetime;
SET #BatchId = (select IsNull(Max(ProcessBatchID), 0) + 1 FROM myTable)
set #BatchDate = GetDate();
-- UPDATE myTable SET ProcessBatchID = #BatchId, ProcessedDateTime = #BatchDate, ProcessingStatus = 'Processing' WHERE ProcessBatchID IS NULL;
SELECT
FullCardNumber, CustomerMarsNumber, CustomerLevelId,
CustomerLevelName, ProcessBatchID
FROM
myTable
WHERE
ProcessBatchID = #BatchId;
-- UPDATE myTable SET ProcessingStatus = 'Processed' WHERE ProcessBatchID = #BatchId;
I do not know GoAnywhere, and this is a long shot, but try adding
SET NOCOUNT on
to your procedure, immediately after the AS statement. SQL will return a rowcount for every query run, and that returned information may be confusing the application. (I've never been that clear on just how that information is returned...)
Guessing a number and ignoring the dataset returned by the SELECT statement, the output from a call to your procedure might look like:
(1 row(s) affected)
(1 row(s) affected)
(1 row(s) affected)
(By the by, a call to a SQL stored procedure returns an integer value as defined by the RETURN statement, with the default value being 0. Just how this returned value is caught and used depends on the application.)
I have the following stored procedure:
ALTER PROCEDURE [dbo].[spTitle_GetTitleById]
(
#TitleId INT
)
AS
BEGIN
SET NOCOUNT ON;
SELECT
Id,
Name,
Active
FROM
Title
WHERE
Id = #TitleId
END
I was told to use SET NOCOUNT ON; if I don't want messages to be returned. I ran this stored procedure through SQL Server Management Studio 2008 and I got the following message:
(1 row(s) affected)
This is still a message. One of our DBAs said that this will be the case, but when it is run through an application it will not return any messages. Is there a way that I can test to see if messages were returned or not when I use SET NOCOUNT ON; I don't want to assume, I want to know.
I right clicked the stored procedure and selected Execute Stored Procedure... I then set it to OFF, and I got:
(1 row(s) affected)
(1 row(s) affected)
So setting it to ON or OFF it still brought back messages in the Messages tab in the results panel.
Just another question, when will it be wise (in what scenarios) to use SET NOCOUNT OFF;?
SET NOCOUNT ON is reset when the procedure exits and it goes up the call stack. When you execute the procedure from SSMS it generates a script like the following.
DECLARE #return_value int
EXEC #return_value = [dbo].[spTitle_GetTitleById]
#TitleId = 1
SELECT 'Return Value' = #return_value /*Message comes from here*/
If youi wanted to avoid that for some reason you would need to SET NOCOUNT ON in the outer batch. See SET NOCOUNT ON usage for some discussion about the merits of having this ON or OFF
Just another question, when will it be wise (in what scenarios) to use SET NOCOUNT OFF?
See What are the advantages and disadvantages of turning NOCOUNT off in SQL Server queries? For the benefits turning SET NOCOUNT ON
As for why you would want to turn this off (so that rowcounts are returned) - you need this off whenever you want to be able to tell how many rows were affected in situations where there is no resultset, or you wish to be able to get a rowcount without first reading through the entire resultset.
For example in .Net the DataAdapter class uses rowcounts and so setting NOCOUNT ON causes issues when editing or deleting data (source).
That is not correct, script out the proc an make sure it is not OFF instead o ON, if it is ON it should not return (1 row(s) affected) messages
Also how are you executing the proc
is is just this
exec spTitle_GetTitleById 1
I have three stored procedures Sp1, Sp2 and Sp3.
The first one (Sp1) will execute the second one (Sp2) and save returned data into #tempTB1 and the second one will execute the third one (Sp3) and save data into #tempTB2.
If I execute the Sp2 it will work and it will return me all my data from the Sp3, but the problem is in the Sp1, when I execute it it will display this error:
INSERT EXEC statement cannot be nested
I tried to change the place of execute Sp2 and it display me another error:
Cannot use the ROLLBACK statement
within an INSERT-EXEC statement.
This is a common issue when attempting to 'bubble' up data from a chain of stored procedures. A restriction in SQL Server is you can only have one INSERT-EXEC active at a time. I recommend looking at How to Share Data Between Stored Procedures which is a very thorough article on patterns to work around this type of problem.
For example a work around could be to turn Sp3 into a Table-valued function.
This is the only "simple" way to do this in SQL Server without some giant convoluted created function or executed sql string call, both of which are terrible solutions:
create a temp table
openrowset your stored procedure data into it
EXAMPLE:
INSERT INTO #YOUR_TEMP_TABLE
SELECT * FROM OPENROWSET ('SQLOLEDB','Server=(local);TRUSTED_CONNECTION=YES;','set fmtonly off EXEC [ServerName].dbo.[StoredProcedureName] 1,2,3')
Note: You MUST use 'set fmtonly off', AND you CANNOT add dynamic sql to this either inside the openrowset call, either for the string containing your stored procedure parameters or for the table name. Thats why you have to use a temp table rather than table variables, which would have been better, as it out performs temp table in most cases.
OK, encouraged by jimhark here is an example of the old single hash table approach: -
CREATE PROCEDURE SP3 as
BEGIN
SELECT 1, 'Data1'
UNION ALL
SELECT 2, 'Data2'
END
go
CREATE PROCEDURE SP2 as
BEGIN
if exists (select * from tempdb.dbo.sysobjects o where o.xtype in ('U') and o.id = object_id(N'tempdb..#tmp1'))
INSERT INTO #tmp1
EXEC SP3
else
EXEC SP3
END
go
CREATE PROCEDURE SP1 as
BEGIN
EXEC SP2
END
GO
/*
--I want some data back from SP3
-- Just run the SP1
EXEC SP1
*/
/*
--I want some data back from SP3 into a table to do something useful
--Try run this - get an error - can't nest Execs
if exists (select * from tempdb.dbo.sysobjects o where o.xtype in ('U') and o.id = object_id(N'tempdb..#tmp1'))
DROP TABLE #tmp1
CREATE TABLE #tmp1 (ID INT, Data VARCHAR(20))
INSERT INTO #tmp1
EXEC SP1
*/
/*
--I want some data back from SP3 into a table to do something useful
--However, if we run this single hash temp table it is in scope anyway so
--no need for the exec insert
if exists (select * from tempdb.dbo.sysobjects o where o.xtype in ('U') and o.id = object_id(N'tempdb..#tmp1'))
DROP TABLE #tmp1
CREATE TABLE #tmp1 (ID INT, Data VARCHAR(20))
EXEC SP1
SELECT * FROM #tmp1
*/
My work around for this problem has always been to use the principle that single hash temp tables are in scope to any called procs. So, I have an option switch in the proc parameters (default set to off). If this is switched on, the called proc will insert the results into the temp table created in the calling proc. I think in the past I have taken it a step further and put some code in the called proc to check if the single hash table exists in scope, if it does then insert the code, otherwise return the result set. Seems to work well - best way of passing large data sets between procs.
This trick works for me.
You don't have this problem on remote server, because on remote server, the last insert command waits for the result of previous command to execute. It's not the case on same server.
Profit that situation for a workaround.
If you have the right permission to create a Linked Server, do it.
Create the same server as linked server.
in SSMS, log into your server
go to "Server Object
Right Click on "Linked Servers", then "New Linked Server"
on the dialog, give any name of your linked server : eg: THISSERVER
server type is "Other data source"
Provider : Microsoft OLE DB Provider for SQL server
Data source: your IP, it can be also just a dot (.), because it's localhost
Go to the tab "Security" and choose the 3rd one "Be made using the login's current security context"
You can edit the server options (3rd tab) if you want
Press OK, your linked server is created
now your Sql command in the SP1 is
insert into #myTempTable
exec THISSERVER.MY_DATABASE_NAME.MY_SCHEMA.SP2
Believe me, it works even you have dynamic insert in SP2
I found a work around is to convert one of the prods into a table valued function. I realize that is not always possible, and introduces its own limitations. However, I have been able to always find at least one of the procedures a good candidate for this. I like this solution, because it doesn't introduce any "hacks" to the solution.
I encountered this issue when trying to import the results of a Stored Proc into a temp table, and that Stored Proc inserted into a temp table as part of its own operation. The issue being that SQL Server does not allow the same process to write to two different temp tables at the same time.
The accepted OPENROWSET answer works fine, but I needed to avoid using any Dynamic SQL or an external OLE provider in my process, so I went a different route.
One easy workaround I found was to change the temporary table in my stored procedure to a table variable. It works exactly the same as it did with a temp table, but no longer conflicts with my other temp table insert.
Just to head off the comment I know that a few of you are about to write, warning me off Table Variables as performance killers... All I can say to you is that in 2020 it pays dividends not to be afraid of Table Variables. If this was 2008 and my Database was hosted on a server with 16GB RAM and running off 5400RPM HDDs, I might agree with you. But it's 2020 and I have an SSD array as my primary storage and hundreds of gigs of RAM. I could load my entire company's database to a table variable and still have plenty of RAM to spare.
Table Variables are back on the menu!
I recommend to read this entire article. Below is the most relevant section of that article that addresses your question:
Rollback and Error Handling is Difficult
In my articles on Error and Transaction Handling in SQL Server, I suggest that you should always have an error handler like
BEGIN CATCH
IF ##trancount > 0 ROLLBACK TRANSACTION
EXEC error_handler_sp
RETURN 55555
END CATCH
The idea is that even if you do not start a transaction in the procedure, you should always include a ROLLBACK, because if you were not able to fulfil your contract, the transaction is not valid.
Unfortunately, this does not work well with INSERT-EXEC. If the called procedure executes a ROLLBACK statement, this happens:
Msg 3915, Level 16, State 0, Procedure SalesByStore, Line 9 Cannot use the ROLLBACK statement within an INSERT-EXEC statement.
The execution of the stored procedure is aborted. If there is no CATCH handler anywhere, the entire batch is aborted, and the transaction is rolled back. If the INSERT-EXEC is inside TRY-CATCH, that CATCH handler will fire, but the transaction is doomed, that is, you must roll it back. The net effect is that the rollback is achieved as requested, but the original error message that triggered the rollback is lost. That may seem like a small thing, but it makes troubleshooting much more difficult, because when you see this error, all you know is that something went wrong, but you don't know what.
I had the same issue and concern over duplicate code in two or more sprocs. I ended up adding an additional attribute for "mode". This allowed common code to exist inside one sproc and the mode directed flow and result set of the sproc.
what about just store the output to the static table ? Like
-- SubProcedure: subProcedureName
---------------------------------
-- Save the value
DELETE lastValue_subProcedureName
INSERT INTO lastValue_subProcedureName (Value)
SELECT #Value
-- Return the value
SELECT #Value
-- Procedure
--------------------------------------------
-- get last value of subProcedureName
SELECT Value FROM lastValue_subProcedureName
its not ideal, but its so simple and you don't need to rewrite everything.
UPDATE:
the previous solution does not work well with parallel queries (async and multiuser accessing) therefore now Iam using temp tables
-- A local temporary table created in a stored procedure is dropped automatically when the stored procedure is finished.
-- The table can be referenced by any nested stored procedures executed by the stored procedure that created the table.
-- The table cannot be referenced by the process that called the stored procedure that created the table.
IF OBJECT_ID('tempdb..#lastValue_spGetData') IS NULL
CREATE TABLE #lastValue_spGetData (Value INT)
-- trigger stored procedure with special silent parameter
EXEC dbo.spGetData 1 --silent mode parameter
nested spGetData stored procedure content
-- Save the output if temporary table exists.
IF OBJECT_ID('tempdb..#lastValue_spGetData') IS NOT NULL
BEGIN
DELETE #lastValue_spGetData
INSERT INTO #lastValue_spGetData(Value)
SELECT Col1 FROM dbo.Table1
END
-- stored procedure return
IF #silentMode = 0
SELECT Col1 FROM dbo.Table1
Declare an output cursor variable to the inner sp :
#c CURSOR VARYING OUTPUT
Then declare a cursor c to the select you want to return.
Then open the cursor.
Then set the reference:
DECLARE c CURSOR LOCAL FAST_FORWARD READ_ONLY FOR
SELECT ...
OPEN c
SET #c = c
DO NOT close or reallocate.
Now call the inner sp from the outer one supplying a cursor parameter like:
exec sp_abc a,b,c,, #cOUT OUTPUT
Once the inner sp executes, your #cOUT is ready to fetch. Loop and then close and deallocate.
If you are able to use other associated technologies such as C#, I suggest using the built in SQL command with Transaction parameter.
var sqlCommand = new SqlCommand(commandText, null, transaction);
I've created a simple Console App that demonstrates this ability which can be found here:
https://github.com/hecked12/SQL-Transaction-Using-C-Sharp
In short, C# allows you to overcome this limitation where you can inspect the output of each stored procedure and use that output however you like, for example you can feed it to another stored procedure. If the output is ok, you can commit the transaction, otherwise, you can revert the changes using rollback.
On SQL Server 2008 R2, I had a mismatch in table columns that caused the Rollback error. It went away when I fixed my sqlcmd table variable populated by the insert-exec statement to match that returned by the stored proc. It was missing org_code. In a windows cmd file, it loads result of stored procedure and selects it.
set SQLTXT= declare #resets as table (org_id nvarchar(9), org_code char(4), ^
tin(char9), old_strt_dt char(10), strt_dt char(10)); ^
insert #resets exec rsp_reset; ^
select * from #resets;
sqlcmd -U user -P pass -d database -S server -Q "%SQLTXT%" -o "OrgReport.txt"
I'm executing stored procedures using SET FMTONLY ON, in order to emulate what our code generator does. However, it seems that the results are cached when executed like this, as I'm still getting a Conversion failed error from a proc that I have just dropped! This happens even when I execute the proc without SET FMTONLY ON.
Can anyone please tell me what's going on here?
Some statements will still be executed, even with SET FMTONLY ON. You "Conversion failed" error could be from something as simple as a set variable statement in the stored proc. For example, this returns the metadata for the first query, but throws an exception when it runs the last statement:
SET FMTONLY on
select 1 as a
declare #a int
set #a = 'a'
As for running a dropped procedure, that's a new one to me. SQL Server uses the system tables to determine the object to execute, so it doesn't matter if the execution plan is cached for that object. If you drop it, it is deleted from the system tables, and should never be executable. Could you please query sysobjects (or sys.objects) just before you execute the procedure? I expect you'll find that you haven't dropped it.
This sounds like a client-side error. Do you get the same message when running through SQL Management Studio?
Have you confirmed that there isn't another procedure with the same name that's owned by a different schema/user?
DDL statements are parsed, but ignored when run if SET FMTONLY ON has been executed on the connection. So if you drop a proc, table, etc when FMTONLY is ON, the statement is parsed, but the action is not executed.
Try this to verify
SET FMTONLY OFF
--Create table to test on
CREATE TABLE TestTable (Column1 INT, Column2 INT)
--insert 1 record
INSERT INTO TestTable (Column1, Column2)
VALUES (1,2)
--validate the record was inserted
SELECT * FROM TestTable
--now set format only to ON
SET FMTONLY ON
--columns are returned, but no data
SELECT * FROM TestTable
--perform DDL statement with FMTONLY ON
DROP TABLE TestTable
--Turn FMTONLY OFF again
SET FMTONLY OFF
--The table was dropped above, so this should not work
SELECT * FROM TestTable
DROP TABLE TestTable
SELECT * FROM TestTable