A stored procedure (also termed prc, proc, storp, sproc, StoPro, StoredProc, StoreProc, sp, or SP) is a subroutine available to applications that access a relational database management system (RDBMS). Such procedures are stored in the database data dictionary.
Uses for stored procedures include data-validation (integrated into the database) or access-control mechanisms. Furthermore, stored procedures can consolidate and centralize logic that was originally implemented in applications. To save time and memory, extensive or complex processing that requires execution of several SQL statements can be saved into stored procedures, and all applications call the procedures. One can use nested stored procedures by executing one stored procedure from within another.
Stored procedures may return result sets, i.e., the results of a SELECT statement. Such result sets can be processed using cursors, by other stored procedures, by associating a result-set locator, or by applications. Stored procedures may also contain declared variables for processing data and cursors that allow it to loop through multiple rows in a table. Stored-procedure flow-control statements typically include IF, WHILE, LOOP, REPEAT, and CASE statements, and more. Stored procedures can receive variables, return results or modify variables and return them, depending on how and where the variable is declared.
Stored procedures are similar to user-defined functions (UDFs). The major difference is that UDFs can be used like any other expression within SQL statements, whereas stored procedures must be invoked using the CALL statement.[1]
CALL procedure(...)or EXECUTE procedure(...)
The exact and correct implementation of stored procedures varies from one database system to the other. Most major database vendors support them in some form. Depending on the database system, stored procedures can be implemented in a variety of programming languages, for example SQL, Java, C, or C++. Stored procedures written in non-SQL languages may or may not execute SQL statements themselves.
The increasing adoption of stored procedures led to the introduction of procedural elements to the SQL language in the and standards in the part SQL/PSM. That made SQL an imperative programming language. Most database systems offer proprietary and vendor-specific extensions, exceeding SQL/PSM. A standard specification for Java stored procedures exists as well as SQL/JRT.
| Database system | Implementation language | |
|---|---|---|
| CUBRID | Java | |
| IBM Db2 | SQL PL (close to the SQL/PSM standard) or Java | |
| Firebird | PSQL (Fyracle also supports portions of Oracle's PL/SQL) | |
| Informix | Java | |
| Interbase | Stored Procedure and Trigger Language | |
| Microsoft SQL Server | Transact-SQL and various .NET Framework languages | |
| MySQL, MariaDB | own stored procedures, closely adhering to SQL/PSM standard | |
| NuoDB | SQL or Java | |
| OpenLink Virtuoso | Virtuoso SQL Procedures (VSP);[2] also extensible via Java, C, and other programming languages | |
| Oracle | PL/SQL or Java | |
| PostgreSQL | PL/pgSQL, can also use own function languages such as PL/Tcl, PL/Perl or PL/Python[3] | |
| SAP HANA | SQLScript or R | |
| SAP ASE | Transact-SQL | |
| SAP SQL Anywhere | Transact-SQL, Watcom SQL | |
| SQLite | Not supported |
In some systems, stored procedures can be used to control transaction management; in others, stored procedures run inside a transaction such that transactions are effectively transparent to them. Stored procedures can also be invoked from a database trigger or a condition handler. For example, a stored procedure may be triggered by an insert on a specific table, or update of a specific field in a table, and the code inside the stored procedure would be executed. Writing stored procedures as condition handlers also allows database administrators to track errors in the system with greater detail by using stored procedures to catch the errors and record some audit information in the database or an external resource like a file.
RETURN keyword), but for stored procedures this is not mandatory.RETURN keyword but with no value being passed.SELECT statements, provided they do no data manipulation. However, procedures cannot be included in SELECT statements.OUT parameter, or return no value.Prepared statements take an ordinary statement or query and parameterize it so that different literal values can be used at a later time. Like stored procedures, they are stored on the server for efficiency and provide some protection from SQL injection attacks. Although simpler and more declarative, prepared statements are not ordinarily written to use procedural logic and cannot operate on variables. Because of their simple interface and client-side implementations, prepared statements are more widely reusable between DBMS.
Smart contract is a term applied to executable code stored on a blockchain as opposed to an RDBMS. Despite the execution result consensus mechanisms of public blockchain networks differing in principle from traditional private or federated databases, they perform ostensibly the same function as stored procedures, albeit usually with a sense of value transaction.