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Inline and multi-statement table-valued functions Part four of a four-part series of blogs
This blog shows you how to create table-valued functions in SQL (ie functions which return a table of data!). Table-valued functions in SQL Simple (in-line) table-valued functions Multi-Statement Table-Valued Functions Limitations of table-valued functions (this blog) This blog is part of our SQL tutorial. If you're looking for a classroom course, have a look at our SQL classroom-based training.

Inline and multi-statement table-valued functions

Part four of a four-part series of blogs

This blog shows you how to create table-valued functions in SQL (ie functions which return a table of data!).

Table-valued functions in SQL
Simple (in-line) table-valued functions
Multi-Statement Table-Valued Functions
Limitations of table-valued functions (this blog)

This blog is part of our SQL tutorial. If you're looking for a classroom course, have a look at our SQL classroom-based training.

Posted by Andy Brown on 08 February 2013

Limitations of table-valued functions

I use table-valued functions throughout my systems, but it's as well to know of a few limitations they share with normal scalar functions. These are as follows:

Limitation	Notes
No "side-effects" allowed	Functions that you write can't insert, delete or update permanent tables.
Calling stored procedures is not possible	Functions can't call normal stored procedures (although they can call extended stored procedures and other functions).
Non-deterministic functions are barred	You can not use certain non-deterministic system functions such as RAND (a function to generate random numbers).
No temporary tables	You can not use temporary tables within a user-defined function.
Limited Error Trapping	You can not use TRY / CATCH blocks in user-defined functions.

It's unlikely that any of the above should trouble you, but I thought I ought to include this information for the sake of completeness!

Parts of this blog
Table-valued functions in SQL Simple (in-line) table-valued functions Multi-Statement Table-Valued Functions Limitations of table-valued functions (this blog)

Some other pages relevant to the above blogs include:

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