A Stored Procedure transformation is an important tool for populating and maintaining databases. Database administrators create stored procedures to automate tasks that are too complicated for standard SQL statements. The Stored Procedure transformation is a passive transformation. You can configure a connected or unconnected Stored Procedure transformation.

A stored procedure is a precompiled collection of Transact-SQL, PL-SQL or other database procedural statements and optional flow control statements, similar to an executable script. Stored procedures are stored and run within the database. You can run a stored procedure with the EXECUTE SQL statement in a database client tool, just as you can run SQL statements. Unlike standard SQL, however, stored procedures allow user-defined variables, conditional statements, and other powerful programming features.

Not all databases support stored procedures, and stored procedure syntax varies depending on the database. You might use stored procedures to complete the following tasks:

Database developers and programmers use stored procedures for various tasks within databases, since stored procedures allow greater flexibility than SQL statements. Stored procedures also provide error handling and logging necessary for critical tasks. Developers create stored procedures in the database using the client tools provided with the database.

The stored procedure must exist in the database before creating a Stored Procedure transformation, and the stored procedure can exist in a source, target, or any database with a valid connection to the Integration Service.

You might use a stored procedure to perform a query or calculation that you would otherwise make part of a mapping. For example, if you already have a well-tested stored procedure for calculating sales tax, you can perform that calculation through the stored procedure instead of recreating the same calculation in an Expression transformation.