PRB: Errors Not Returned When Stored Procedure Statement Fails

When executing a stored procedure with multiple queries (SELECTs, INSERTs and UPDATEs), the ActiveX Data Objects (ADO) errors collection appears not to be populated after an error occurs in the stored procedure. The stored procedure might also not return values from its RETURN statement.

The SQL Server OLE DB provider provides more accurate information (than ODBC) to the caller about what happened in the procedure. Each SQL statement within a stored procedure returns a "result," either a count of rows affected or a result set. You can walk through these result sets in ADO using the NextRecordset method on the Recordset object.

The SQL Server ODBC provider, however, does not provide information about the results of individual SQL statements within a stored procedure. The only result that comes back from a stored procedure execution is the result of the SELECT statement, if it has one. This is why this problem may not manifest with ODBC.

In both cases, return values from the stored procedure may not be returned.

To resolve this problem, make sure that the SET NOCOUNT ON statement comes before any other SQL statements in the stored procedure, as in the following:

This behavior is by design.

Steps to Reproduce the Behavior

1. Create an ASP page with the following code:
   
   Note You must change UserID=<username> to the correct value before you run this code. Make sure that the User ID has the appropriate permissions to perform this operation on the database.

   <%
   
   Set oConn = Server.CreateObject("ADODB.Connection")
   Set Rs = Server.CreateObject("ADODB.Recordset")
   
   On Error Resume Next
   
   oConn.Open("Provider=SQLOLEDB.1;User ID=<username>;Initial Catalog=Northwind;Data Source=DataSourceName")
   
   Set oCmd = Server.CreateObject("ADODB.Command")
   
   Set oCmd.ActiveConnection = oConn
   
   oCmd.CommandText = "TestProc"
   oCmd.CommandType = adCmdStoredProc
   oCmd.Parameters.Append oCmd.CreateParameter("RETURN_VALUE",3,4,0)
   
   oCmd.Execute()
   
   If oCmd.ActiveConnection.Errors.Count > 0 Then
     For Each oError in oCmd.ActiveConnection.Errors 
       Response.Write "Description = " & oError.Description & "<BR>"
     Next
   End If
   
   Response.Write( "Return Value = "  & oCmd.Parameters("RETURN_VALUE") & "<BR>")
   oConn.Close
   
   Set oConn = Nothing
   Set oCmd = Nothing
   
   %>
   					

2. Create a stored procedure similar to the following:

   ALTER Procedure TestProc AS
   -- Uncommenting the line below resolved this problem
   -- set nocount ON
   begin tran
     insert into xxx values(1)
      
     If @@error <> 0
       Begin    
         rollback
         return 1     
       End
   
     insert into yyy values(<Invalid Data>)
     if @@error <> 0
      begin
       rollback
       return 2
      end
   
     insert into zzz values(3)
     if @@error <> 0
      begin
       rollback
       return 3
      end
   
   commit tran
   return 0
   					

3. Run the ASP page, and you should get the following result instead of an error message and a return value of 2.
   
   Return Value =