Question

Is it possible to DETECT whether the current stored procedure is being called by an INSERT-EXEC statement?

Yes, I understand we may want to no longer use INSERT-EXEC statements…that is NOT the question I am asking.

The REASON I am using INSERT-EXEC is because i am hoping to promote re-use of stored procedures rather than re-writing the same SQL all the time.

Here’s why I care:

Under the INSERT-EXEC scenario the original error message will get lost once a ROLLBACK is requested. As such, any records created will now be orphaned.

Example:

ALTER PROCEDURE [dbo].[spa_DoSomething]
(
    @SomeKey    INT,
    @CreatedBy  NVARCHAR(50)
)
AS
BEGIN
    SET NOCOUNT ON;

    BEGIN TRY
        BEGIN TRANSACTION

        -- SQL runs and throws an error of some kind.

        COMMIT TRAN
    END TRY
    BEGIN CATCH

        IF @@TRANCOUNT > 0
            ROLLBACK TRAN

        -- If this procedure is called using an INSERT-EXEC
        -- then the original error will be lost at this point because
        -- "Cannot use the ROLLBACK statement within an INSERT-EXEC statement." 
        -- will come-up instead of the original error.

        SET @ErrorMessage = ERROR_MESSAGE();
        SET @ErrorSeverity =    ERROR_SEVERITY();
        SET @ErrorState =       ERROR_STATE();

        RAISERROR(@ErrorMessage, @ErrorSeverity, @ErrorState)
    END CATCH

    RETURN @@Error
END

Answer 1

Maybe @@NESTLEVEL can help:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms187371.aspx