Question

I need to write a stored procedure to insert a row into a table. The table has an Identity column called ID. My question is should I return the value and if so, how?

As far as I can see,

• I could return it as the return value,
• I could return it as an out parameter, or
• I could do nothing with it.

What would a DB programmer do as a default?

Answer 1

If you are looking for a One True Way Of Writing All Insert Procedures, then you’re wasting your time. There will always be a table somewhere in your database that requires you to violate your own conventions somehow. The best you can hope for is a set of general consistency guidelines (not rules).

For general consistency guidelines, I suggest the following:

• The return value is always int and cannot be changed. Accordingly, it is best reserved for returning zero for success or @@error for failure.
• Output parameters are more efficient than the default resultset if you have a small collection of scalar values to send back. You can therefore return the @@identity value and any other auto-generated values (e.g. GUIDs, timestamps) in this manner.