Microsoft® SQL Server™ 2000 DBA Survival Guide, Second Edition

SQL Error Messages

If you run a query and accidentally make a mistake by entering a table that does not exist in the database, what happens? SQL Server returns an error message. Actually, SQL Server reacts to all errors in the same manner, whether those errors are generated by users, databases, objects, or the system. SQL Server returns a formatted error message and/or writes the error message to the error log and/or event log. Here is a quick example that executes a SQL statement to update a nonexistent table in the pubs database. The SQL statement for the example is as follows:

UPDATE new_authors 
Set author1 = "Spenik",
author2 = "Sledge",
title="Microsoft SQL Server DBA Survival Guide"

When the statement is executed, the following error ...