Question

I’ve just begun to learn how to write stored procedures and SQL code outside of the basic DML stuff. Something that I’ve recently come across is table value parameters. I’ve found a script to make a TVP and it works just fine but there are two things that I don’t understand about it. One, when to use them. What’s a typical real world scenario when a TVP would be beneficial. Two, how come when I remove the begin and end from the following script does it work the same; what’s the difference between having those keywords and not? SQL Server 2008 R2

use [tempdb]
--this is the database table that will be populated
create table SampleTable
(
id int not null identity (1,1)
,SampleString varchar(50)
,SampleInt int null
)
go
--create the table data type
create type dbo.SampleDataType as table
(
SampleString varchar(50)
,SampleInt int
)
go
--the stored procedure takes the SampleDataType as an input parameter
create proc SampleProc
(
--accepts the TVP as the lone parameter
--make sure that the TVP is readonly
@Sample as dbo.SampleDataType readonly
)
as
begin
--we simply insert the values into the db table from the parameter
insert into SampleTable(SampleString,SampleInt)
select SampleString,SampleInt from @Sample
end
go
--this is the sample script to test that the sproc worked 
declare @SampleData as dbo.SampleDataType
insert into @SampleData(SampleString,SampleInt) values ('one',1);
insert into @SampleData(SampleString,SampleInt) values ('two',2);
select * from @SampleData

Answer 1

One real world use is to parameterise an in clause.

Where a query has a filter on (x, y, z, ...) you no longer have to resort to one of the methods here such as passing it in as a comma delimited list and then splitting it.

The BEGIN ... END make no difference there. It defines a block. You might use that after an IF statement for example to group multiple statements together into one logical block.