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What is the difference between Stored Procedures and Function (SQL Server interview question with answers)?

By Shiv Prasad Koirala in SQL
Sep 29th, 2013
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	Stored Procedure	Functions
Compilation	Stored in database in compiled format. Note: Compiled indicates, Execution plan will be made by sql at the time it created and stored in DB.	Will compiled at run time
Return type	It can directly return only integers Return type is not must	It can return any scalar or table Return type is must
Multiple return values	It can also return more than one values (of any data type) indirectly with the help of out parameters	It won't support out parameters
DML Statements	Can have DML statements.	Cannot have DML statements. Note: In case of multi-table valued functions it can contain DML statements affecting Table Variables.
Execution	Stored procedure can execute function. Cannot be the part of Select query as a column. Stored Procedures cannot be used in the SQL statements anywhere in the WHERE/HAVING/SELECT	Function cannot execute stored procedure. Can be the part of select query as a column. Functions be used in the SQL statements anywhere in the WHERE/HAVING/SELECT
Exception handling	Can have Try....Catch	Cannot have Try....Catch

Sometimes we face a question, why we can't execute stored procedure inside a function?

Answer:

1. Stored Procedure may contain DML statements.

2. Function can't contain DML statements.
So executing Function inside stored procedure will never break rule 1.
But executing stored procedure inside function may break rule no 2.

So ultimately strict rule is made why Sql team, we can't execute stored procedures inside function.

We are thankful to QuestPond.com for providing this SQL Server interview question with answers tutorial.

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