Microsoft® SQL Server 2012 Unleashed

T-SQL Stored Procedure Coding Guidelines

Transact-SQL (T-SQL) stored procedures should be treated just like reusable application code. You should follow these suggested guidelines to ensure that your stored procedures are solid and robust:

Check all parameters for valid values and return an error message if a problem exists.

Be sure that the parameter data types match the column data types they are compared against to avoid data type mismatches and poor query optimization.

Use Try...Catch logic or check the @@error system function after each ...