Summary

Optimization and debugging is a wide topic; here in this chapter we focused on optimizing stored procedures. Briefly speaking, the performance of a stored procedure is the result of the collective performance of all the statements that make up that procedure. However, as we discussed, from an optimization point of view, we can make the process of identifying the cause of performance issues easier by being able to understand the execution plan generated when running a stored procedure.

Then we looked at error handling, and we also discussed throwing errors. Then we went on to discuss the debugger in SQL Server. It makes isolating bugs within stored procedures much easier than having to simply wade through lines of code for finding the problematic line. This is even more relevant when working with procedures that call other procedures or functions as the offending line would be much more difficult to isolate without the assistance of the debugger.