SQL Table Valued Function in Select Statement - sql

Question

SQL is not my best thing but I have been trying to optimize this stored procedure. It had multiple scalar-valued functions that I tried to change to table-valued functions because I read in many places that it's a more efficient way of doing it. And now I have them made but not real sure how to implement or if I maybe just didn't create them correctly.
This is the function I'm calling.
Alter FUNCTION [IsNotSenateActivityTableValue]
(
#ActivityCode int,
#BillId int,
#TextToDisplay varchar(max)
)
returns #T table(result varchar(max))
as
begin
DECLARE #result varchar(max);
declare #countcodes int;
declare #ishousebill int;
select #ishousebill = count(billid)
from BillMaster
where BillID = #BillID and Chamber = 'H'
If (#ishousebill = 0)
begin
SELECT #countcodes = count([ActivityCode])
FROM [HouseCoreData].[dbo].[ActivityCode]
where ActivityDescription not like '%(H)%' and ActivityType = 'S'
and [ActivityCode] = #ActivityCode
if (#countcodes = 0)
begin
set #result = 'test'
end
else
begin
set #result = 'test2'
end
end
else
begin
set #result = #TextToDisplay
end
RETURN
END
And this is how I was trying to call them like this. I would prefer just being able to put them in the top but really anything that works would be good.
SELECT distinct
ActionDates.result as ActionDate
,ActivityDescriptions.result as ActivityDescription
FROM BillWebReporting.vwBillDetailWithSubjectIndex as vw
left outer join [BillWebReporting].[HasHouseSummary] as HasSummary on vw.BillID = HasSummary.BillID
outer APPLY dbo.IsNotSenateActivityDateTableValue(ActivityCode,vw.BillID,[ActionDate]) ActionDates
OUTER APPLY dbo.IsNotSenateActivityTableValue(ActivityCode,vw.BillID,[ActivityDescription]) as ActivityDescriptions

Answer 1

Getting a count just to see if at least one row exists is very expensive. You should use EXISTS instead, which can potentially short circuit without materializing the entire count.
Here is a more efficient way using an inline table-valued function instead of a multi-statement table-valued function.
ALTER FUNCTION dbo.[IsNotSenateActivityTableValue] -- always use schema prefix!
(
#ActivityCode int,
#BillId int,
#TextToDisplay varchar(max)
)
RETURNS TABLE
AS
RETURN (SELECT result = CASE WHEN EXISTS
(SELECT 1 FROM dbo.BillMaster
WHERE BillID = #BillID AND Chamber = 'H'
) THEN #TextToDisplay ELSE CASE WHEN EXISTS
(SELECT 1 FROM [HouseCoreData].[dbo].[ActivityCode]
where ActivityDescription not like '%(H)%'
and ActivityType = 'S'
and [ActivityCode] = #ActivityCode
) THEN 'test2' ELSE 'test' END
END);
GO
Of course it could also just be a scalar UDF...
ALTER FUNCTION dbo.[IsNotSenateActivityScalar] -- always use schema prefix!
(
#ActivityCode int,
#BillId int,
#TextToDisplay varchar(max)
)
RETURNS VARCHAR(MAX)
AS
BEGIN
DECLARE #result VARCHAR(MAX);
SELECT #result = CASE WHEN EXISTS
(SELECT 1 FROM dbo.BillMaster
WHERE BillID = #BillID AND Chamber = 'H'
) THEN #TextToDisplay ELSE CASE WHEN EXISTS
(SELECT 1 FROM [HouseCoreData].[dbo].[ActivityCode]
where ActivityDescription not like '%(H)%'
and ActivityType = 'S'
and [ActivityCode] = #ActivityCode
) THEN 'test2' ELSE 'test' END
END;
RETURN (#result);
END
GO

Answer 2

Table-valued functions return a table, in which, like any other table, rows have to be inserted.
Instead of doing set #result = ....., do:
INSERT INTO #T (result) VALUES ( ..... )
EDIT: As a side note, I don't really understand the reason for this function to be table-valued. You are essentially returning one value.

Answer 3

First of all UDFs generally are very non-performant. I am not sure about MySQL, but in Sql Server a UDF is recompiled every time (FOR EACH ROW OF OUTPUT) it is executed, except for what are called inline UDFs, which only have a single select statement, which is folded into the SQL of the outer query it is included in... and so is only compiled once.
MySQL does have inline table-valued functions, use it instead... in SQL Server, the syntax would be:
CREATE FUNCTION IsNotSenateActivityTableValue
(
#ActivityCode int,
#BillId int,
#TextToDisplay varchar(max)
)
RETURNS TABLE
AS
RETURN
(
Select case
When y.bilCnt + z.actCnt = 0 Then 'test'
when y.bilCnt = 0 then 'test2'
else #TextToDisplay end result
From (Select Count(billId) bilCnt
From BillMaster
Where BillID = #BillID
And Chamber = 'H') y
Full Join
(Select count([ActivityCode]) actCnt
From [HouseCoreData].[dbo].[ActivityCode]
Where ActivityDescription not like '%(H)%'
And ActivityType = 'S'
And [ActivityCode] = #ActivityCode) z
)
GO