Best Practices - Stored Procedure Logging

Question

If you have a long running SP, do you log somehow its actions or just wait for this message?

\"Command(s) completed successfully.\"

Answer 1

I use this procedure

CREATE PROCEDURE dbo.PrintLog (
    @Msg VARCHAR(2048)
    , @Option VARCHAR(100) = ''
    , @Separator VARCHAR(10) = '-'
    )
/*
@Option is a string containing possible values as B,A,D,T
if you want to print separator before message, include B
if you want to print separator after message, include A
if you want to print date, include D
if you want to print time, include T
Sample: 'BAD'

The order of characters does not matter. it is not case sensitive

Usage:
    exec dbo.PrintLog 'Timed Log', 'T'
    exec dbo.PrintLog 'Dated Log', 'D'
    exec dbo.PrintLog 'With Separator and Time', 'BT', '><'
    exec dbo.PrintLog 'With Separator and Date', 'BAD', '*'
    exec dbo.PrintLog 'With Separator and DateTime', 'BADT', 'x'
*/
AS
BEGIN
    declare @tempStr varchar(100)
    set @tempStr = replicate(@Separator, 50)
    IF charindex('B', upper(@Option)) > 0
        raiserror (@tempStr, 10, 1) with nowait

    DECLARE @prompt VARCHAR(max) = ''

    IF charindex('D', upper(@Option)) > 0
        SET @prompt = convert(VARCHAR, SysDatetime(), 101) + ' '

    IF charindex('T', upper(@Option)) > 0
        SET @prompt = @prompt + convert(VARCHAR, SysDatetime(), 108) + ' '
    SET @prompt = @prompt + @Msg

    raiserror (@prompt, 10, 1) with nowait

    set @tempStr = replicate(@Separator, 50)
    IF charindex('A', upper(@Option)) > 0
        raiserror (@tempStr, 10, 1) with nowait

    RETURN
END

GO

Usage

    exec dbo.PrintLog 'Date and Timed Log', 'DT'
    exec dbo.PrintLog 'Dated Log', 'D'
    exec dbo.PrintLog 'With Separator and Time', 'BT', '><'
    exec dbo.PrintLog 'With Separator and Date', 'BAD', '*'
    exec dbo.PrintLog 'With Separator and DateTime', 'BADT', 'x'

You also can change the parameter defaults to you desired values.