Hi,
I believe that if you begin a stored procedure name with 'sp_' then SQLServer will automatically check the master DB first. Two obvious ramifications of this
(a) it will take a bit longer to find the procedure.
(b) if an identically named proc does exist in the master DB it will be executed in preference to the one you've written.

So Craig is right - to a point - if you're writing a stored procedure for the master DB then I guess you *should* use 'sp_'

IAC if the above is correect (and it may not be - I'm not a SQLServer person) this behaviour seems pretty sloppy to me.



>I have always understood the sp_ to stand for stored procedure.
>
>>That's exactly where they should be. SP = System Procedure. Customer procs should not start with SP.
>>
>>>Maybe - but a quick look at SQL2005 shows that MS threw in 1,285 of them..... (g)
>>>