reuse sql with view or function

Question

I have a sql query that I will be reusing in multiple stored procedures. The query works against multiple tables and returns an integer value based on 2 variables passed to

Answer 1

I'm going to give you a half-answer because I cannot be sure about what is better in terms of performance, I'm sorry. But then other people have surely got good pieces of advice on that score, I'm certain.

I will stick to your 'common practice' part of question.

So, a scalar function wood seem to me a natural solution in this case. Why, you only want a value, an integer value to be returned - this is what scalar functions are for, isn't it?

But then, if I could see a probability that later I would need more than one value, I might then consider switching to a TVF. Then again, what if you have already implemented your scalar function and used it in many places of your application and now you need a row, a column or a table of values to be returned using basically the same logic?

In my view (no pun intended), a view could become something like the greatest common divisor for both scalar and table-valued functions. The functions would only need to apply the parameters.

Now you have said that you are only planning to choose which option to use. Yet, considering the above, I still think that views can be a good choice and prove useful when scaling your application, and you could actually use both views and functions (if only that didn't upset the performance too badly) just as I have described.