SQL ERROR MESSAGE

In SQL Server, Every error is recognized with a specific error message and this SQL Error Message function will help us to fetch that error message, when the SQL server identifies error during the query execution. This function works within the scope of a TRY CATCH block. For example, we write series of statements inside the TRY block and if the SQL Server finds an error then ERROR_MESSAGE() inside the CATCH block will be executed, and returns the corresponding error description.

SQL ERROR MESSAGE Function Syntax

The basic syntax of the Error_Message in SQL Server is as shown below:

ERROR_MESSAGE();

TIP: The ERROR_MESSAGE() function takes no arguments, and returns NVARCHAR(4000) as the output.

Following SQL statement will return the Error Message (text) and the corresponding Error Number. Here, we highlighted the well know error message, which is Divide by Zero error encountered

SELECT *
  FROM sys.messages

OUTPUT

SQL ERROR MESSAGE example

In this example we are going to show you, How to use the Error_Message() function to return the error message.

SQL CODE

BEGIN TRY
    DECLARE @Number smallint,
	    @Result smallint;
    SET @Number = 32760;
    SET @Result = @Number + 10;
SELECT @Number AS Number, 
       @Result AS Result;
END TRY
BEGIN CATCH
  PRINT N'Error Message = ' + ERROR_MESSAGE();
END CATCH

OUTPUT

ANALYSIS

First, we declared two smallint variables

DECLARE @Number smallint,
    @Result smallint;

Next we assigned 32,760 to Number variable and 32,770 to Result variable.

SET @Number = 32760;
SET @Result = @Number + 10;

As we all know that smallint holds numbers from -32,768 to 32,767 means Overflow so, it will exit from the TRY block and execute the statement inside our CATCH block, which is:

 PRINT N'Error Message = ' + ERROR_MESSAGE();

SQL ERROR MESSAGE Example 2

In this example we are going to find the result of 1/0.

SQL CODE

BEGIN TRY
	SELECT 1/0 AS Result;
END TRY
BEGIN CATCH
	SELECT ERROR_MESSAGE() AS [Error Message];
END CATCH

OUTPUT

ANALYSIS

Within the TRY block we are finding the result of 1/0

SELECT 1/0 AS Result;

We all know that, the above specified statement will throw an error so, statement inside the CATCH block (i.e., below statement) will be executed.

SELECT ERROR_MESSAGE() AS [Error Message];

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