A Practical Step in the Stored Proc Debate

I've taken a practical step in the long-running debate for and against stored procs.

I've logged a formal suggestion with Microsoft asking them to correct their erroneous advice on the subject. :-)

This Patterns and Practices page says:

Stored procedures generally result in improved performance because the database can optimize the data access plan used by the procedure and cache it for subsequent reuse.

That's been factually incorrect for the last decade! In terms of query plan caching, Parameterized SQL and Stored Procs are handled in the same way - and they have been since SQL Server 7.

So, if you too are disappointed by the level of erroneous information in this long running debate, head over to the feedback page and support my request to fix the P&P page. You can support it via commenting on the page or by using the Validation link at the top.

Let's hope we can get the page corrected, and achieve a small step for rationality in an often irrational debate :-)

(Apologies to Microsoft if my tone sounds hash. I know you've already got the correct information up on other parts of your site.)

Update Oct 08: the P&P guidance is being updated, so one presumes this will be fixed as part of that work.