Question

As part of my integration strategy, I have a few SQL scripts that run in order to update the database. The first thing all of these scripts do is check to see if they need to run, e.g.:

if @version <> @expects     begin         declare @error varchar(100);         set @error = 'Invalid version. Your version is ' + convert(varchar, @version) + '. This script expects version ' + convert(varchar, @expects) + '.';         raiserror(@error, 10, 1);     end else     begin         ...sql statements here...     end 

Works great! Except if I need to add a stored procedure. The ‘create proc’ command must be the only command in a batch of sql commands. Putting a ‘create proc’ in my IF statement causes this error:

 'CREATE/ALTER PROCEDURE' must be the first statement in a query batch. 

Ouch! How do I put the CREATE PROC command in my script, and have it only execute if it needs to?

Answer 1

Here’s what I came up with:

Wrap it in an EXEC(), like so:

if @version <> @expects     begin         ...snip...     end else     begin         exec('CREATE PROC MyProc AS SELECT ''Victory!''');     end 

Works like a charm!