Troubleshooting complex stored procedures can result in a DBA spending cycles in another person’s code – cycles that could’ve better been spent in other areas. A long-time best practice for troubleshooting complex stored procedures has been to use an automated debugger.

By using the debugger, the DBA can step through the individual lines of code, ensuring that the order processing is correct. Being able to easily see the values of variables is imperative, and being able to set the variable values is an added benefit.

To ensure accurate processing throughout the stored procedure, it’s sometimes necessary to change the values of variables. To be able to do this on the fly without having to manually set the values in the code is a real time saver.

Here we’re stepping through a debugger looking at the specific lines of code. Also, we’re able to see the values of the variables as well as looking in the watch window and being able to set the new value of the variable. We’re also able to see the call stack and any dependent stored procedures or triggers that may be applicable to this complex stored procedure.

If you find yourself spending valuable cycles trying to debug a complex stored procedure manually, we invite you to take a look at IDERA DBArtisan and experience a new way to debug complex stored procedures.