I want to create temp table with their unique name by a select query in a stored procedure in SQL Server.
For example: whenever I run the select query at that time different temp table name want to create.
Let be more clear, at the first time when I will run the select query at that time temptable name is temptable1, while at the second time the table name will be temptable2 and so on.
I want to know the syntax for executing the select query and creating the temptable with their unique name in a stored procedure in SQL Server.
In the context of the SQL Server Stored Procedure, the engine is handling itself the names of the temporary tables.
There is no need to worry if many users are executing the same stored procedure in same time - the temporary objects cannot be shared across them and no conflicts are going to happen.
Also, naming a temporary table in stored procedure with different name can be done using a dynamic T-SQL statement. You can for example, use a sequence to get such number and concatenate it to the table name. But, if you do so, you need to use sp_executesql to create your table and do things with it. In such way, no other stored procedure would be able to read/modify the table you have created in the current stored procedure. In other words, the temporary table cannot be shared over the routines if created using dynamic T-SQL statement. So, there is absolutely no point of doing such thing.
I am new to SQL Server. I wrote a simple stored procedure that returns rows with data condition.
Here is my code:
CREATE PROCEDURE test.newArtists
#LastUpdated smalldatetime
AS
BEGIN
SELECT *
FROM ARTIST
WHERE GENERATED > #LastUpdated OR MODIFIED > #LastUpdated;
END
When I execute this stored procedure, it returns 0 rows. like ...
DECLARE #temp DATETIME;
SET #temp = CONVERT (DATETIME, '2016/12/05');
EXEC test.newArtists #LastUpdated = #temp;
However, when I execute the query without using procedure, it returns about 5,000 rows.
DECLARE #temp DATETIME;
SET #temp = CONVERT (DATETIME, '2016/12/05');
SELECT *
FROM ARTIST
WHERE GENERATED > #temp OR MODIFIED > #temp;
I just do not understand whey those two returns different results.
Thanks for explanations!
===================================================
I find the problem. Thanks.
I'am using test schema.
So I connected to test. However, When I use SELECT * FROM ARTIST it does not search test.ARTIST, but ARTIST table which belongs to dbo.
Summary.
The basic problem here is I got 2 tables with name ARTIST.
However, I still do not understand why it automatically look for dbo schema.
I got little experience with MYSQL, but when I connect to a certain schema, it only find objects inside of the schema. Is it normal or should I do some work to set prefix?
Thanks for answers though b
It is always good practice to refer to database objects by a schema
name and the object name, separated by a period (.).
object referred to without an explicit schema name ... will be located by searching the default schema first, followed by the dbo schema
Source: SQL Server Best Practices – Implementation of Database Object Schemas
Dbo is the default schema, it will always go to that one first if the schema is not specified. It is a good practice to always specify the schema in the query especially if you are using more than one. That way it won't waste time looking in the wrong schema first.
I've seen in Oracle SQL that there is something called SYS_REFCURSOR which is used in a SP to get a recordset from a table
I want to do the same thing in SQL Server so I can a SP to get a recordset of a specific table. I've searched a lot looking for similar solutions but all what I've seen are all related to Oracle SQL.
Any suggestions please?
P.S. To be more clear, what do I want is just using an SP to select all records instead of the normal query.
i.e. instead of using:
SELECT * FROM EMP_DEPARTMENT
use SP to do the same thing.
Assuming you mean stored procedure with SP you can to this :
create procedure dbo.spMyProcedure as
begin
set nocount on
select * from emp_department
end;
than you can do this :
exec dbo.spMyProcedure
Is this what you mean ?
In SQL Server, you can simply encapsulated the SELECT query in a stored procedure (using * only as an example since an explicit column list is the best practice):
CREATE PROC dbo.GetEmployeeDepartments
AS
SELECT * FROM EMP_DEPARTMENT;
GO
The SQL Server client API will stream the result as a fast-forwared read-only resultset, where individual rows can be used.
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"
Is there a way via metadata (Information_Schema, perhaps?) to get a list of the columns a sproc will return? I'm trying to automate some code generation and that would help tremendously...
Unless you're prepared to parse the contents of ROUTINE_DEFINITION in INFORMATION_SCHEMA.ROUTINES, then your best bet will be to execute the procedures, and read the column information from the records returned.
In .NET you can do this by reading the results of the stored procedure into a DataTable and querying the Columns property.
The reason there's no easy way to do this is a stored procedure could potentially return different result sets based on the parameters. There's no fixed result set format like there is with user defined functions.
Edit
As mentioned in the other answer, you will need to use SET FMTONLY ON to ensure no data is returned. There are some situations where SET FMTONLY won't work, e.g. when using #temp tables in your stored procedures, but there is a workaround.
I just ran Profiler to see how Visual Studio does this for the strongly typed dataset drag and drop.
This is the code it sent.
SET NO_BROWSETABLE ON;
SET FMTONLY ON;
exec dbo.aspnet_Roles_GetAllRoles #ApplicationName=NULL
So I presume there might not be any "more official" way of doing it.
Obviously you would need to bear in mind that a single stored procedure might return multiple result sets or different result sets dependant on the parameters passed.
For people on 2012+ another approach might be to use sp_describe_first_result_set
My way of doing this:
Edit the stored procedure to have an INTO clause:
Change
Select * from tablename
to
Select * INTO _tablename FROM tablename
This creates a table in the database.
Then, use SELECT * FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA WHERE TABLE_NAME = '_tablename'
Don't forget to undo the modification to the sproc.