IIRC, yes, every stored procedure that could generate an error should have an output parameter. Mine was always called ErrorMessage (or some such) and used to pass back the Error Message - which can be done, again iirc, through raiseerror?


>Hi,
>
>In my VFP stored procedures I always returned a string; empty if no problem occurred; or the string would have a description of the error, if a problem occurred.
>
>In SQL Server stored procedures, I learned today, I can only return an integer. I am thinking about returning 0 if no problem and -1 if there is a problem. Then, if there is a problem, set to an OUTPUT parameter the value of error message. I am wondering if this would be a good practice? My concern is that then each and every stored procedure would have to have an OUTPUT parameter.
>
>I would appreciate any suggestions on this topic. TIA.