Question

In SQL Server, how can I separate a large number of tsql statement into batches? Should I use the GO statement in stored procedures or functions? Should I use the GO statement in explicit transaction management situation(between BEGIN TRANSACTION and ROLLBACK TRANSACTION or COMMIT TRANSACTION)?
Are there some best practice about this topic?
Great thanks in advance.

Answer 1

GO is not actually a SQL keyword – it’s interpreted by SQL Server Management Studio. So you can’t use it in stored procedures.

If you’re writing a script for SSMS, you can use GO inside a transaction, but be careful about error handling – if an error occurs, the transaction will be rolled back, but only the current batch will be aborted, and then execution will continue to the next batch. See this question.

As for best practises, personally I just use GO only when I have to (for example, when creating multiple stored procedures – each has to have its own batch). The fewer GO statements, the less work to handle errors.