ALTER PROCEDURE (Transact-SQL)

schema_name

The name of the schema to which the procedure belongs.

procedure_name

The name of the procedure to change. Procedure names must comply with the rules for identifiers.

;number

An existing optional integer that is used to group procedures of the same name so that they can be dropped together by using one DROP PROCEDURE statement.

Note
This feature will be removed in a future version of Microsoft SQL Server. Avoid using this feature in new development work, and plan to modify applications that currently use this feature.

@parameter

A parameter in the procedure. Up to 2,100 parameters can be specified.

[ type_schema_name. ] data_type

Is the data type of the parameter and the schema it belongs to.

For information about data type restrictions, see CREATE PROCEDURE (Transact-SQL).

VARYING

Specifies the result set supported as an output parameter. This parameter is constructed dynamically by the stored procedure and its contents can vary. Applies only to cursor parameters. This option is not valid for CLR procedures.

default

Is a default value for the parameter.

OUT | OUTPUT

Indicates that the parameter is a return parameter.

READONLY

Indicates that the parameter cannot be updated or modified within the body of the procedure. If the parameter type is a table-value type, READONLY must be specified.

RECOMPILE

Indicates that the Database Engine does not cache a plan for this procedure and the procedure is recompiled at run time.

ENCRYPTION

Indicates that the Database Engine will convert the original text of the ALTER PROCEDURE statement to an obfuscated format. The output of the obfuscation is not directly visible in any of the catalog views in SQL Server. Users that have no access to system tables or database files cannot retrieve the obfuscated text. However, the text will be available to privileged users that can either access system tables over the DAC port or directly access database files. Also, users that can attach a debugger to the server process can retrieve the original procedure from memory at runtime. For more information about accessing system metadata, see Metadata Visibility Configuration.

Procedures created with this option cannot be published as part of SQL Server replication.

This option cannot be specified for common language runtime (CLR) stored procedures.

Note
During an upgrade, the Database Engine uses the obfuscated comments stored in sys.sql_modules to re-create procedures.

EXECUTE AS

Specifies the security context under which to execute the stored procedure after it is accessed.

For more information, see EXECUTE AS Clause (Transact-SQL).

FOR REPLICATION

Specifies that stored procedures that are created for replication cannot be executed on the Subscriber. A stored procedure created with the FOR REPLICATION option is used as a stored procedure filter and only executed during replication. Parameters cannot be declared if FOR REPLICATION is specified. This option is not valid for CLR procedures. The RECOMPILE option is ignored for procedures created with FOR REPLICATION.

{ [ BEGIN ] sql_statement [;] [ ...n ] [ END ] }

One or more Transact-SQL statements comprising the body of the procedure. You can use the optional BEGIN and END keywords to enclose the statements. For more information, see the Best Practices, General Remarks, and Limitations and Restrictions sections in CREATE PROCEDURE (Transact-SQL).

EXTERNAL NAME assembly_name.class_name.method_name

Specifies the method of a .NET Framework assembly for a CLR stored procedure to reference. class_name must be a valid SQL Server identifier and must exist as a class in the assembly. If the class has a namespace-qualified name uses a period (.) to separate namespace parts, the class name must be delimited by using brackets ([ ]) or quotation marks (" "). The specified method must be a static method of the class.

By default, SQL Server cannot execute CLR code. You can create, modify, and drop database objects that reference common language runtime modules; however, you cannot execute these references in SQL Server until you enable the clr enabled option. To enable the option, use sp_configure.

Transact-SQL stored procedures cannot be modified to be CLR stored procedures and vice versa.

ALTER PROCEDURE does not change permissions and does not affect any dependent stored procedures or triggers. However, the current session settings for QUOTED_IDENTIFIER and ANSI_NULLS are included in the stored procedure when it is modified. If the settings are different from those in effect when stored procedure was originally created, the behavior of the stored procedure may change.

If a previous procedure definition was created using WITH ENCRYPTION or WITH RECOMPILE, these options are enabled only if they are included in ALTER PROCEDURE.

For more information about stored procedures, see CREATE PROCEDURE (Transact-SQL).

Permissions

The following example creates the uspVendorAllInfo stored procedure. This procedure returns the names of all the vendors that supply Adventure Works Cycles, the products they supply, their credit ratings, and their availability. After this procedure is created, it is then modified to return a different result set.

USE AdventureWorks2008R2;
GO
IF OBJECT_ID ( 'Purchasing.uspVendorAllInfo', 'P' ) IS NOT NULL 
    DROP PROCEDURE Purchasing.uspVendorAllInfo;
GO
CREATE PROCEDURE Purchasing.uspVendorAllInfo
WITH EXECUTE AS CALLER
AS
    SET NOCOUNT ON;
    SELECT v.Name AS Vendor, p.Name AS 'Product name', 
      v.CreditRating AS 'Rating', 
      v.ActiveFlag AS Availability
    FROM Purchasing.Vendor v 
    INNER JOIN Purchasing.ProductVendor pv
      ON v.BusinessEntityID = pv.BusinessEntityID 
    INNER JOIN Production.Product p
      ON pv.ProductID = p.ProductID 
    ORDER BY v.Name ASC;
GO

The following example alters the uspVendorAllInfo stored procedure. It removes the EXECUTE AS CALLER clause and modifies the body of the procedure to return only those vendors that supply the specified product. The LEFT and CASE functions customize the appearance of the result set.

USE AdventureWorks2008R2;
GO
ALTER PROCEDURE Purchasing.uspVendorAllInfo
    @Product varchar(25) 
AS
    SET NOCOUNT ON;
    SELECT LEFT(v.Name, 25) AS Vendor, LEFT(p.Name, 25) AS 'Product name', 
    'Rating' = CASE v.CreditRating 
        WHEN 1 THEN 'Superior'
        WHEN 2 THEN 'Excellent'
        WHEN 3 THEN 'Above average'
        WHEN 4 THEN 'Average'
        WHEN 5 THEN 'Below average'
        ELSE 'No rating'
        END
    , Availability = CASE v.ActiveFlag
        WHEN 1 THEN 'Yes'
        ELSE 'No'
        END
    FROM Purchasing.Vendor AS v 
    INNER JOIN Purchasing.ProductVendor AS pv
      ON v.BusinessEntityID = pv.BusinessEntityID 
    INNER JOIN Production.Product AS p 
      ON pv.ProductID = p.ProductID 
    WHERE p.Name LIKE @Product
    ORDER BY v.Name ASC;
GO
EXEC Purchasing.uspVendorAllInfo N'LL Crankarm';
GO

Here is the result set.

Vendor               Product name  Rating    Availability

-------------------- ------------- -------   ------------

Proseware, Inc.      LL Crankarm   Average   No

Vision Cycles, Inc.  LL Crankarm   Superior  Yes

(2 row(s) affected)

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