Error Handling in SQL Server with THROW

Continuing our series on SQL Server 2012, today we will talk about THROW. In versions prior to SQL Sever 2012, we used @@RAISE_ERROR to generate error messages dynamically or using the sys.messages catalog.

Consider the following example

SELECT ROUND(800.0, -3)

On executing this statement, you get the following error:



because the value does not fit into the decimal data type.

You can use @@RAISERROR to raise a message

BEGIN TRY
SELECT ROUND(800.0, -3)
END TRY
BEGIN CATCH
DECLARE @ErrorMsg nvarchar(1000), @Severity int
SELECT @ErrorMsg = ERROR_MESSAGE(),
@Severity = ERROR_SEVERITY()
RAISERROR (@ErrorMsg, @Severity, 1)
END CATCH

Note: The old syntax of RAISERROR syntax specifying the error number and message number got deprecated (RAISEERROR 50005 ‘Exception Occurred’). Instead the new syntax RAISEERROR(50005, 10, 1) allowed you to specify the messageid, severity and state). For new applications use THROW.

However in SQL Server 2012, there’s a better way to this without much efforts – THROW. Consider the following code

BEGIN TRY
SELECT ROUND(800.0, -3)
END TRY
BEGIN CATCH
THROW
END CATCH



As you can see, with just one word THROW, we were able to handle the error with grace and get a result too.

About The Author

Suprotim Agarwal, MCSD, MCAD, MCDBA, MCSE, is the founder of DotNetCurry, DNC Magazine for Developers, SQLServerCurry and DevCurry. He has also authored a couple of books 51 Recipes using jQuery with ASP.NET Controls and a new one recently at The Absolutely Awesome jQuery CookBook.

Suprotim has received the prestigous Microsoft MVP award for nine times in a row now. In a professional capacity, he is the CEO of A2Z Knowledge Visuals Pvt Ltd, a digital group that represents premium web sites and digital publications comprising of Professional web, windows, mobile and cloud developers, technical managers, and architects.

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