Why stored procedure cannot be used with select, where & having - sql

Why stored procedure cannot be used with Select, Where & Having?
I understand a function can serve the purpose - what's the reason why a stored procedure cannot be executed in select?
Blogs are answering you can use UDF. Understand we can use UDF & we are using.
Need a valid reason on stored procedure.

Biggest reasons most likely is that procedures can return any number of result sets and change data. It can have no results, or it can be 100 different results sets with 0 to n rows. It can also depend on your input parameters. Stored procedure can also affect the underlying data, so what would happen if you would use a stored procedure that changes data in the same table you're using it in the where clause? The results sets don't even necessary have names for the columns, so you couldn't refer them in any way.
So, since for procedures would be really complex to implement anything like that, why should it be possible to use them in where etc? You haven't provided any valid reason why they should.
The reason functions exist, is that you can use them for where clauses etc.

Related

Is it possible to limit the permissions on a per procedure basis?

I am writing a sql procedure where almost everything will be dynamic including selecting, grouping, ordering by, and where clauses using IN statements. In terms of code reuse, readability, and maintenance it makes a lot of sense to just pass in an sql query as a string and execute it. I am writing my procedure right now so that all the relevant data is joined and formatted in a static query and then inserted into a table variable. I then want to pass in sql queries to be executed against the table variable.
This opens me up to sql injection in a big way. I could create table value parameters for each of the many parameter types I am passing in but I don't want to do that. What I would really like to be able to do sandbox my procedure in a such a way that, on the procedure level, it is only possible to do these things I want to allow; ie select from certain tables, but not grant permissions or anything funny like that. Can this be done?
Of course it can be done. It's a simple matter of programming. You would keep rules in tables, and write logic in your stored procedure to query the rules tables, and follow the rules.
It will be a monumental job that will basically amount to you writing custom code to do what SQL Server already does for you if you don't use a generic, dynamic stored procedure.
I wouldn't do it, but you don't have to let that stop you.

Pass in table value parameter or the individual parameters into a stored procedure?

Is there a general performance difference in SQL Server 2012 passing in a table valued parameter versus just passing in a fixed set of individual scalar-valued parameters into a stored procedure?
Also, does passing in the same individual set of scalar-valued parameters reduce recompilation of your stored procedure versus passing in a table parameter that might have different number of row values within?
I am working on trying to reduce recompilation of some of my lengthiest stored procedures (3000+ lines which unfortunately I cannot share) and I notice that many of them have a tabled value parameter being passed as well as other potential "issues" that can be improved upon including including creation of multiple temp tables, indexes being created for those temp tables within the stored procedure, missing indexes on the main tables, and conditional logic which may or may not run a part of the stored procedure.
Thank you for your time.
EDIT: Clarified fixed set of scalar-valued based on comments.

Stored Procedure - General

With a stored procedure in a database, would the following situation be true?
I have a procedure that queries a very large table, and in my query I call the stored procedure, and follow it with a WHERE record_class = "THE ONE IM LOOKING FOR".
In the stored procedure I'm not limiting the records by the record_class, so does the WHERE clause do anything other than filter the results that the procedure returns?
In other words, if I wanted to speed up the results because it takes too long, would adding a parameter for the record_class to the procedure and selecting only those when it performs its tasks be quicker than using the WHERE clause?
Your analysis is completely true, if you apply the condition directly in your stored procedure instead of outside it will for sure be more performant.
In the first situation, your procedure will return every rows without applying your condition (this condition is completely unknown for the procedure) and this result will then be filtered with your WHERE clause.
Depending on your needs, the best solution may be to define a parameter for your stored procedure so you can pass this parameter at execution and the result will be filtered. I don't know exactly what is the purpose of your procedure but by doing so, you'll keep the possibility to execute the same procedure for multiple situations (you simply need to pass the record_class you want to filter the result or let it NULL if you want the entire data).
This approach requires a little modification to your procedure (adding a parameter) and a modification of your query (adding the WHERE clause that filters the result if needed).
Hope this will help you.

What is the difference between Stored Functions and Views in DB?

I didn't undetstood the difference between Stored Functions and Views.
Using Views in SELECT will execute the query and return the result, but Stored Functions do the same thing, don't they? So what is the difference? When I use Views and when Stored Functions?
View:
A view is a virtual table. It does not physically exist. Rather, it is created by a query joining one or more tables. View returns a table.
Stored procedure: A stored procedure is a group of Transact-SQL statements compiled into a single execution plan.
stored procedures returns Output parameters,return codes (which are always an integer value),
a result set for each SELECT statement contained in the stored procedure or any other stored procedures called by the stored procedure,a global cursor that can be referenced outside the stored procedure.
key benefits of stored procedure are Precompiled execution, reduced client/server traffic,efficient reuse of code, programming abstraction and enhanced security controls.
Update:
A stored function is a named PL/SQL Block which is similar to a procedure. The major difference between a procedure and a function is, a function must always return a value, but a procedure may or may not return a value.
1) Return Type: The header section defines the return type of the function. The return datatype can be any of the oracle datatype like varchar, number etc.
2) The execution and exception section both should return a value which is of the datatype defined in the header section
You can have a stored function return the same data a view would in most databases.
The distinction for me is that a function is executed and a view is selected from.
A view will behave as a table.
A view returns a specific pre-defined statement as exactly one result set.
A function returns a single values or a single result set. This however can differ from different types of database.
Several db implementations also have stored procedures where the result can be a single returned value, a result set or several result sets.
Getting simple (PLEASE start reading a book about SQL): A view looks like a table, so you can filter on the results and the filter will efficiently be part of the views execution, or do joins. A SP does not allow this, but a lot more logic. The rest... is in the documentation.
These can never be compares, these have totally different
approach.
A view is a output of a query ,and makes a virtual image of the table,and the input parameters are not accepted.
Main difference is that a Stored Procedure can alter your data, where
as a view only returns it and I believe from a performance point of
view, a stored procedure is better as it caches the execution plan and
will run faster as a result.
storedprocedure/function is a group of sql statements that are pre-executed and it accepts the parameters.it reduces network traffic, gives faster performance, etc.
SQL Functions in programming languages are subroutines used to encapsulate frequently performed logic. these somewhat slow down the performance.
Check these SQL View, SQL Stored Procedures and SQL User-Defined Functions
My Opinion is that SQL Stored Procedure(Stored Functions) are much better to use because it provides custom manipulations on result set also.
From my experiences I'm sharing to you my knowledge:
Don't use views
Better to use a stored procedure(it is compiled sql statement), you can use parametrized procedure as required.
Stored Function is collection of complied sql statement which is faster.
Note: Views is a SELECT statement( with/without JOIN) for a table which select data from table and if we again run a SELECT statement from VIEWS which provide slower result because the internal operation is as ( SELECT * FROM ( SELECT * FROM TargetTable ) )
So, its better to use Stored Function
Update:
Functions are computed values and cannot perform permanent environmental changed to SQL Server (i.e. no INSERT or UPDATE statements allowed).
A Function can be used inline in SQL Statements if it returns a scalar value or can be joined upon if it returns a result set.
Also please see here for performance comparison: SQL-Server Performance: What is faster, a stored procedure or a view?

Advantages of Userdefined functions over Stored Procedures

I have some doubt regarding user defined functions. I would like to know why / when to use functions.
What are the advantages of functions over stored procedure?
Researching via google I have seen articles suggesting:
stored procedure are more advantageous than functions.
function have limited error handling
functions cannot use temporary tables
functions cannot call stored procedures.
The only advantage of function is we can use function as inline queries.
I can get the same result with stored procedure by using temporary tables, but i need to know which scenario to use functions compared to stored procedure.
I need to know why we need UDf , when most of the functionalities provided by UDF can be done by Stored procedure.
Can any one guide me over this.
The main difference (advantage) is that you can call functions inline unlike stored procedures
e.g.
SELECT dbo.fxnFormatName(FirstName, LastName) AS FormattedName
FROM MyTable
SELECT *
FROM dbo.fxnTableReturningFunction() x
User defined functions can return TABLE type data and then the function can then be called within a query as demonstrated above. With a sproc, you'd have to execute it and store the results into a temporary table in order to then manipulate/query the resultset further.
On the flip side, yes you are limited as to what you can do in a function. e.g. you can't use dynamic sql, and pre-SQL 2005 you can't use non-deterministic functions like GETDATE() within a function.
An example of when you may want to use functions, is to wrap up common "formatting" functionality as shown in the first example above - rather than repeat the logic to format a first and last name into one in every query, you wrap it in a function and call that everywhere. Typically I'd recommend leaving the formatting up to the UI but it's a simple example of where/why you might use.
Also, it can often be nicer to not have to create temp tables to hold results from a sproc in order to query it further. If the sproc changes and returns more columns, you'd also need to change everywhere that loads the results into a temp table to synch the schema of the table table it uses to hold the results with the new schema returned. You don't have this problem with the function approach as there is no temp table to be maintained.
There are three types of functions: Scalar, Inline Table and Table Valued. Generally speaking, Scalar & Table Values functions can lead to performance problems, seeing as the Query Optimiser doesn't do very well at optimisation of the use of those types of functions. The performance of Inline Table function is just fine, however.
There is a Connect request to create a new type of scalar function here: The Scalar Expression function would speed performance...
I hope that people do vote for that one, because it would improve performance greatly by allowing the query optimiser to inline functional expressions and take advantage of statistics etc just as it would for a normal query.
The main "disadvantage" of user-defined functions is that they are called for each row. So, if you have such a function in the SELECT list and you're operating on larger sets, there are good chances that your performance will suffer.
Advantage of Mysql Stored Procedure
Multiple applications are running in multiple environment and need to use the same database. By using stored procedure you can make your business logic independent of programming language.
When security is main concern use of stored procedure is vital. By doing your operation through the database you can log your all performed action. Banking site is the best example.
If you are using stored procedure then you do not have table access directly which is one more way to secure the data and transaction.
Stored procedure increases performance of your application sometime
If your application is big or your database server on remote system then by using stored procedure you can decrease the traffic between your database server and application server.
Since stored procedure is written in your database server and application call it sepratly then the degree of re-usability.