SQL ERROR SEVERITY is one of the System Function used to return the severity of the error (if occurred). This ERROR SEVERITY function works within the scope of a CATCH block. If you call this function from outside the CATCH block, it will return NULL.
For example, we write a series of statements inside the TRY block. And if the server finds an error, then ERROR_SEVERITY() inside the CATCH block will be executed, and return an integer value. The basic syntax of the Error_Severity in SQL Server is as shown below:
ERROR_SEVERITY()
SQL ERROR SEVERITY example
In this example we are going to show you, How to use the Error_Severity function to find the error severity.
BEGIN TRY SELECT 1/0 END TRY BEGIN CATCH SELECT ERROR_SEVERITY() AS ErrorResult END CATCH GO
ERROR SEVERITY Example 2
It is another example to demonstrate the SQL Server Error_Severity function.
BEGIN TRY DECLARE @Number tinyint, @Res tinyint; SET @Number = 252; SET @Res = @Number + 10; SELECT @Number AS Number, @Res AS Result; END TRY BEGIN CATCH PRINT N'Error Severity = ' + CAST(ERROR_SEVERITY() AS VARCHAR(100)); PRINT N'Error Message = ' + CAST(ERROR_MESSAGE() AS VARCHAR(100)); END CATCH
First, we declared two SQL Server tinyint variables
DECLARE @Number tinyint, @Res tinyint;
Next we assigned 252 to @Number variable, and then we added 10 to that variable which will become 262 (Result).
SET @Number = 252; SET @Res = @Number + 10;
As we all know that tinyint holds numbers from 0 to 255 means Overflow so, it will exit from the TRY block, and execute the statements inside our CATCH block. We used the ERROR_MESSAGE function to display the error description
PRINT N'Error Severity = ' + CAST(ERROR_SEVERITY() AS VARCHAR(100)); PRINT N'Error Message = ' + CAST(ERROR_MESSAGE() AS VARCHAR(100));