SET NOCOUNT ON Improves SQL Server Stored Procedure Performance

By: Greg Robidoux   |   Read Comments (7)   |   Related Tips: More > Stored Procedures

Problem
One of the biggest things that DBAs try to do on a daily basis is to ensure that their database systems run as fast as possible.  As more and more users access the databases and the databases continue to grow, performance slow downs are almost inevitable. Based on this, DBAs and developers should do everything they possibly can to keep performance related issues in mind early in the database lifecycle.  This is not always easy to do, because of the unknowns and the changes that occur over time, but there are some simple things that can be done and we will touch upon one of these in this tip.

Solution
Sometimes even the simplest things can make a difference.  One of these simple items that should be part of every stored procedure is SET NOCOUNT ON.  This one line of code, put at the top of a stored procedure turns off the messages that SQL Server sends back to the client after each T-SQL statement is executed.  This is performed for all SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, and DELETE statements. Having this information is handy when you run a T-SQL statement in a query window, but when stored procedures are run there is no need for this information to be passed back to the client.

By removing this extra overhead from the network it can greatly improve overall performance for your database and application.

If you still need to get the number of rows affected by the T-SQL statement that is executing you can still use the @@ROWCOUNT option.  By issuing a SET NOCOUNT ON this function (@@ROWCOUNT) still works and can still be used in your stored procedures to identify how many rows were affected by the statement.

Microsoft even realized the issue that this creates and has changed the stored procedure templates from SQL Server 2000 to SQL Server 2005.

Here is the old template style available in SQL Server 2000 without the SET NOCOUNT ON.

-- ============================================= -- Create procedure basic template -- ============================================= -- creating the store procedure IF EXISTS (SELECT name FROM sysobjects WHERE name = N'<procedure_name, sysname, proc_test>' AND type = 'P') DROP PROCEDURE <procedure_name, sysname, proc_test> GO CREATE PROCEDURE <procedure_name, sysname, proc_test> <@param1, sysname, @p1> <datatype_for_param1, , int> = <default_value_for_param1, , 0>, <@param2, sysname, @p2> <datatype_for_param2, , int> = <default_value_for_param2, , 0> AS SELECT @p1, @p2 GO -- ============================================= -- example to execute the store procedure -- ============================================= EXECUTE <procedure_name, sysname, proc_test> <value_for_param1, , 1>, <value_for_param2, , 2> GO

Here is the new template style available in SQL Server 2005 with the SET NOCOUNT ON.

-- ================================================ -- Template generated from Template Explorer using: -- Create Procedure (New Menu).SQL -- -- Use the Specify Values for Template Parameters -- command (Ctrl-Shift-M) to fill in the parameter -- values below. -- -- This block of comments will not be included in -- the definition of the procedure. -- ================================================ SET ANSI_NULLS ON GO SET QUOTED_IDENTIFIER ON GO -- ============================================= -- Author: <Author,,Name> -- Create date: <Create Date,,> -- Description: <Description,,> -- ============================================= CREATE PROCEDURE <Procedure_Name, sysname, ProcedureName> -- Add the parameters for the stored procedure here <@Param1, sysname, @p1> <Datatype_For_Param1, , int> = <Default_Value_For_Param1, , 0>, <@Param2, sysname, @p2> <Datatype_For_Param2, , int> = <Default_Value_For_Param2, , 0> AS BEGIN -- SET NOCOUNT ON added to prevent extra result sets from -- interfering with SELECT statements. SET NOCOUNT ON; -- Insert statements for procedure here SELECT <@Param1, sysname, @p1>, <@Param2, sysname, @p2> END GO

As you can see even simple little things such as this can make an overall improvement for your database environment.  Stay tuned for other simple tricks and techniques to improve performance.

Next Steps

• Review your code to see if you are using the SET NOCOUNT ON
• Modify your code to add this simple one line of code
• Check out these commands and functions in books online
  • SET NOCOUNT ON
  • @@ROWCOUNT

Last Update: 4/19/2007

About the author

Greg is the President of Edgewood Solutions and a co-founder of MSSQLTips.com.

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Comments and Feedback:

Thursday, December 23, 2010 - 12:05:25 PM - Joshua Guttman	Read The Tip
How do you define "significant improvment?" Do you have any tests? I seriously doubt having nocount on or off makes any difference.

Thursday, December 23, 2010 - 1:04:44 PM - Greg Robidoux	Read The Tip
For one database call this does not make a big difference, but if you have this in every call the ***ulative impact does add up.  This was first brought to my attention by the performance tool Indepth for SQL Server from Precise Software. By returning the rowcount for every SQL command you are adding additional network traffic that you don't really need.

Thursday, December 23, 2010 - 1:07:02 PM - Greg Robidoux	Read The Tip
Here is another article that has actual benchmarks: http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/Performance+Tuning/2751/

Friday, December 23, 2011 - 4:54:46 PM - Zalek Bloom

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I have a big problem with "set nocount on". We are running Fujitsu Cobol on Windows with MS SQL Server. All out programs declare cursors inside Cobol. We were told that in order to improve performence we need to declare cursor in Stored Procedure.  One of my programs has one main cursor to get all each customer accoount and for each customer I opened/process/close another cursor to get custorer transactions. So I moved the main cursor to the Stored Procedure. Now - if the Stored Procedure does NOT includes "set nocount on" - my program runes correctly. When I put "set nocount on" inside the Stored Procedure - on fetch of the cutomer cursor (the one defined in my Cobol program) I am getting SQL error code -999999700 and the message: "The cursor is not opened". Any ideas why? Thanks, Zalek Bloom

Tuesday, January 31, 2012 - 12:00:19 PM - Patricia Cons	Read The Tip
Great tip-advice!, your point was pretty clear, the effects of missing this line are directly proportional to the number of transactions running in a database, I guess Joshua Guttman was not thinking in a big company database! Thanks Greg!

Tuesday, September 18, 2012 - 10:39:26 AM - hedecan	Read The Tip
Hello,   I want to set nocount value for all stored procedure t-sql code outomatcily.   What can i do ?   Please share script for this article.

Monday, October 15, 2012 - 3:34:04 AM - aly Fathy	Read The Tip
Hii All, SET NOCOUNT ON  put it at the top of a stored procedure turns off the messages that SQL Server sends back to the client after each T-SQL statement is executed. This is performed for all SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, and DELETE statements.

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