SQL Server Name Convention and T-SQL Programming Style

There are only two hard things in Computer Science: cache invalidation and naming things -- Phil Karlton

Naming convention is a set of rules for choosing the character sequence to be used for identifiers which denote variables, types, functions, and other entities in source code and documentation.

Reasons for using a naming convention (as opposed to allowing programmers to choose any character sequence) include the following:

• To reduce the effort needed to read and understand source code.
• To enable code reviews to focus on more important issues than arguing over syntax and naming standards.
• To enable code quality review tools to focus their reporting mainly on significant issues other than syntax and style preferences.

Table of Contents

• SQL Server Object Name Convention
• SQL Server Data Types Recommendation
• SQL Server Function Recommendations
• T-SQL Programming T-SQL Style
  • General T-SQL programming style
  • Stored procedures and functions programming style
  • Dynamic T-SQL Recommendation
• Reference and useful links

SQL Server Object Name Convention

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SQL Server Data Types Recommendation

More details about SQL Server data types and mapping it with another databases and program languages you can find here

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SQL Server Function Recommendations

This is only recommendations! But it is consistent for choosing only 1 function from possibles alterntives and use only it.

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T-SQL Programming Style

SQL Server T-SQL Coding Conventions, Best Practices, and Programming Guidelines.

General programming T-SQL style

• For database objects names in code use only schema plus object name, do not hardcode server and database names in your code:

  /* good */
  CREATE TABLE dbo.MyTable (MyColumn int);
  
  /* bad*/
  CREATE TABLE PRODSERVER.PRODDB.dbo.MyTable (MyColumn int);
  CREATE TABLE MyTable (MyColumn int);

  More details here, here, here, here, here, here.

• Delimiters: spaces (not tabs).

• Always use multi-line comment /* */ instead in-line comment -- in production code due to potential formating problems in different tools and programs. More details here, here, and here.

• Never use asterisk (*) in select statements SELECT * and INSERT statements, use explicit column names. Main problems are: traffic issues, Memory Grants issues, Index usage issues. Only one exception, see it below. More details here, here, here, here.

• Use asterisk (*) ONLY in an archiving situation, where rows are being moved to another table that must have the same structure.

  INSERT INTO SalesOrderArchive  /* Note no column list */
  SELECT *
  FROM SalesOrder
  WHERE OrderDate < @OneYearAgo;
  
  DELETE FROM SalesOrder
  WHERE OrderDate < @OneYearAgo;

  If a new column is added to SalesOrder table in the future, but not to SalesOrderArchive, the INSERT will fail. Which sounds bad, but it's actually a really good thing! Because the alternative is much worse. If all the columns were listed on the INSERT and the SELECT, then the INSERT would succeed, and so would the following DELETE (which is effectively DELETE *). Production code that succeeds doesn't get any attention, and it may be a long time before someone notices that the new column is not being archived, but being silently deleted altogether. More details here.

• No square brackets [] and reserved words in object names and alias, use only Latin symbols [A-z] and numeric [0-9].

• Prefer ANSI syntax and functions ( CAST instead CONVERT , COALESE instead ISNULL , etc.).

• All finished expressions should have semicolon ; at the end. This is ANSI standard and Microsoft announced with the SQL Server 2008 release that semicolon statement terminators will become mandatory in a future version so statement terminators other than semicolons (whitespace) are currently deprecated. This deprecation announcement means that you should always use semicolon terminators in new development. From Transact-SQL Syntax Conventions (Transact-SQL):

  Although the semicolon isn't required for most statements in this version of SQL Server, it will be required in a future version.

  More details here, here, and here. Semicolon is mandority for:

  1. Common table expression WITH CTE:

     When a CTE is used in a statement that is part of a batch, the statement before it must be followed by a semicolon.

  2. Merge statements:

     The MERGE statement requires a semicolon (;) as a statement terminator. Error 10713 is raised when a MERGE statement is run without the terminator.

  3. TROW exceptions:

     The statement before the THROW statement must be followed by the semicolon (;) statement terminator.

  4. All Service Broker statements:

     If the SEND statement isn't the first statement in a batch or stored procedure, the preceding statement must be terminated with a semicolon (;).

• All script files should end with GO and line break. This is neccesary for batching scripts run throw sqlcmd or another tools.

• Keywords should be in UPPERCASE: SELECT, FROM, GROUP BY etc. This increases the readability of the code.

• Data types declaration should be in lowercase: varchar(30), int, real, nvarchar(max) etc. More details here.

• All system database and tables must be in lowercase for properly working for Case Sensitive instance: master, sys.tables ….

• Do not use nested transactions. The commit of a nested transaction has absolutely no effect – as the only transaction that really exists as far as SQL Server is concerned is the outer one. More details here.

• Whenever you have data modification on non-temporary tables, is to use explicit transactions over autocommit.

  1. If you have a stored procedure which is simply running a SELECT statement, use autocommit.
  2. If you have a stored procedure which performs data modification on non-temporary tables, use an explicit transactions only over the area which modifies data.
  3. If you are working with non-global temporary tables beforehand, don’t include any modification of those inside the explicit transaction.
  4. In a loop, choose whether you want to put the explicit transactions around the loop or inside it. In most cases, prefer to put the transaction inside the loop to minimize the amount of time that blocking other users.
  5. Outside of a stored procedure use explicit transactions if you’re doing something potentially risky.
  6. Watch out for nested transactions. In SQL Server, there’s very little utility in them and their behavior is weird. Paul Randal explains in great detail just how broken they are. More details here.

• Avoid using Cross-Database Queries because it increase backup/restore complexity (you restore one database, then realise you don’t have log backups to bring the other database to the same point in time). Also Azure SQL Database does not support cross-database queries and you can not migrate into in future.

• Use temp tables to reduce network trafic, decrease query complexity and also to get better estimates for modification queries. More details here. INFORMATION_SCHEMA views only represent a subset of the metadata of an object. The only reliable way to find the schema of a object is to query the sys.objects catalog view.

• When more than one logical operator is used always use parentheses, even when they are not required. This can improve the readability of queries, and reduce the chance of making a subtle mistake because of operator precedence. There is no significant performance penalty in using parentheses. More details here.

  SELECT
     ProductID
  FROM Production.Product
  WHERE (ProductModelID = 20 OR ProductModelID = 21)
     AND Color = 'Red';
  

• Always use aliases for table names. More details here.

• Whenever you’re working with multiple tables in a join (explicit or, like this one, implicit), always specify which table each column comes from. Even if your code works just fine today, just adding an unfortunately named column many years later can break your code. More details here.

• Avoid non-standard column and table aliases, use, if required, double-quotes for special characters and always AS keyword before alias:

  SELECT
        p.LastName AS "Last Name"
   FROM dbo.Person AS p;

  More details here. All possible ways using aliases in SQL Server:

  /* Recommended due to ANSI */
  SELECT SCHEMA_NAME(schema_id) + '.' + "name" AS "Tables" FROM sys.tables;
  
  /* Not recommended but possible */
  SELECT SCHEMA_NAME(schema_id) + '.' + [name] AS "Tables" FROM sys.tables;
  SELECT Tables   = SCHEMA_NAME(schema_id) + '.' + [name]  FROM sys.tables;
  SELECT "Tables" = SCHEMA_NAME(schema_id) + '.' + [name]  FROM sys.tables;
  SELECT [Tables] = SCHEMA_NAME(schema_id) + '.' + [name]  FROM sys.tables;
  SELECT 'Tables' = SCHEMA_NAME(schema_id) + '.' + [name]  FROM sys.tables;
  SELECT SCHEMA_NAME(schema_id) + '.' + [name] [Tables]    FROM sys.tables;
  SELECT SCHEMA_NAME(schema_id) + '.' + [name] 'Tables'    FROM sys.tables;
  SELECT SCHEMA_NAME(schema_id) + '.' + [name] "Tables"    FROM sys.tables;
  SELECT SCHEMA_NAME(schema_id) + '.' + [name] Tables      FROM sys.tables;
  SELECT SCHEMA_NAME(schema_id) + '.' + [name] AS [Tables] FROM sys.tables;
  SELECT SCHEMA_NAME(schema_id) + '.' + [name] AS 'Tables' FROM sys.tables;
  SELECT SCHEMA_NAME(schema_id) + '.' + [name] AS Tables   FROM sys.tables;

• Always consider using an explicit range condition when comparing dates for properly make use of an index. More details here.

  /* bad */
  SELECT sale_date
  FROM sales
  WHERE YEAR(sale_date) >= 1970
  AND YEAR(sale_date) < 1971;
  
  /* good */
  SELECT sale_date
  FROM sales
  WHERE sale_date >= CAST('1970-01-01' AS date) 
   AND sale_date < CAST('1971-01-01', AS date);

• The first argument in SELECT expression should be on the next line:

  SELECT
      FirstName

• Arguments are divided by line breaks, commas should be placed before an argument:

  SELECT
      FirstName
    , LastName

• For SQL Server >= 2012 use FETCH-OFFSET instead TOP . More details here. But if you use TOP avoid use TOP in a SELECT statement without an ORDER BY. More details here.

• If you using TOP (instead recommended FETCH-OFFSET ) function with round brackets because TOP has supports use of an expression, such as (@Rows*2), or a sub query: SELECT TOP(100) LastName …. More details here. Also TOP without brackets does not work with UPDATE and DELETE statements.

  /* Not working without brackets () */
  DECLARE @n int = 1;
  SELECT TOP@n name FROM sys.objects;

• For demo queries use TOP(100) or lower value because SQL Server uses one sorting method for TOP 1-100 rows, and a different one for 101+ rows. More details here and here.

  • Avoid specifying integers in the ORDER BY clause as positional representations of the columns in the select list. The statement with integers is not as easily understood by others compared with specifying the actual column name. In addition, changes to the select list, such as changing the column order or adding new columns, requires modifying the ORDER BY clause in order to avoid unexpected results. More details here.

    
    /* bad */
    SELECT ProductID, Name FROM production.Production ORDER BY 2;

  / good / SELECT ProductID, Name FROM production.Production ORDER BY Name;

• Avoid wrapping functions around columns specified in the WHERE and JOIN clauses. Doing so makes the columns non-deterministic and prevents the query processor from using indexes.

• Use NULL or NOT NULL for each column in a temporary table. The ANSI_NULL_DFLT_ON option control the way the Database Engine assigns the NULL or NOT NULL attributes to columns when these attributes are not specified in a CREATE TABLE or ALTER TABLE statement. If a connection executes a procedure with different settings for these options than the connection that created the procedure, the columns of the table created for the second connection can have different nullability and exhibit different behavior. If NULL or NOT NULL is explicitly stated for each column, the temporary tables are created by using the same nullability for all connections that execute the procedure.

• Use modification statements that convert nulls and include logic that eliminates rows with null values from queries. Be aware that in Transact-SQL, NULL is not an empty or "nothing" value. It is a placeholder for an unknown value and can cause unexpected behavior, especially when querying for result sets or using AGGREGATE functions.

• Use the UNION ALL operator instead of the UNION or OR operators, unless there is a specific need for distinct values. The UNION ALL operator requires less processing overhead because duplicates are not filtered out of the result set.

• Avoid using INSERT INTO a permanent table with ORDER BY. More details here.

• Avoid using shorthand (wk, yyyy, d etc.) with date/time operations, use full names: month, day, year. More details here.

• Avoid ambiguous formats for date-only literals, use CAST('yyyymmdd' AS DATE) format.

• Avoid treating dates like strings and avoid calculations on the left-hand side of the WHERE clause. More details here.

• Avoid using hints except RECOMPILE if needed and NOEXPAND (see next tip). More details here.

• Use NOEXPAND hint for indexed views on non enterprise editions and Prior to SQL Server 2016 (13.x) SP1 to let the query optimizer know that we have indexes. More details here.

• Use LOOP JOIN and FAST 1 query hints for deleting huge number of rows with ON DELETE CASCADE foreign keys specification. More details here.

• If you use hints always use it with WITH keyword because omitting the WITH keyword is a deprecated feature and will be removed from future Microsoft SQL Server versions. One benefit of using the WITH keyword is that you can specify multiple table hints using the WITH keyword against the same table. More details here.

• Avoid use of SELECT…INTO for production code, use instead CREATE TABLE + INSERT INTO … approach. More details here.

• Use only ISO standard JOINS syntaxes. The old style Microsoft/Sybase JOIN style for SQL, which uses the =* and *= syntax, has been deprecated and is no longer used. Queries that use this syntax will fail when the database engine level is 10 (SQL Server 2008) or later (compatibility level 100). The ANSI-89 table citation list (FROM tableA, tableB) is still ISO standard for INNER JOINs only. Neither of these styles are worth using. It is always better to specify the type of join you requireINNER, LEFT OUTER, RIGHT OUTER, FULL OUTER and CROSS, which has been standard since ANSI SQL-92 was published. While you can choose any supported JOINstyle, without affecting the query plan used by SQL Server, using the ANSI-standard syntax will make your code easier to understand, more consistent, and portable to other relational database systems. More details here.

• Do not use a scalar user-defined function (UDF) in a JOIN condition, WHERE search condition, or in a SELECT list, unless the function is schema-bound. More details here.

• For scalar function use WITH SCHEMABINDING option to get a performance boost. More details here

• Do not use INFORMATION_SCHEMA views to determine the schema of an object. INFORMATION_SCHEMA views only represent a subset of the metadata of an object. The only reliable way to find the schema of a object is to query the sys.objects catalog view. More details here.

• Do not use explicit transactions for DML and DDL especially for reorganize index because the locking behavior of this statemnets becomes more restrictive. More details here.

• In sqlcmd move the -Uand -P parameters after the -Q parameter so that the password is at the end of the command. More details here

  sqlcmd -S MSSQLSERVER$EXPRESS -Q "dbcc checkdb ('master') with DATA_PURITY, NO_INFOMSGS;" -U maintenanceUser -P ""weirdPassword

• Use EXISTS or NOT EXISTS if referencing a subquery, and IN or NOT IN when have a list of literal values. More details here.

• For concatenate unicode strings:

  • always using the upper-case N;
  • always store into a variable of type nvarchar(max);
  • avoid truncation of string literals, simply ensure that one piece is converted to nvarchar(max). Example:

    /* good */
    DECLARE @nvcmaxVariable nvarchar(max);
    SET @nvcmaxVariable = CAST(N'ಠ russian anomaly ЯЁЪ ಠ ' AS nvarchar(max)) + N'something else' + N'another';
    SELECT @nvcmaxVariable;

    More details here.

• Always specify a length to any text-based data type such as varchar, nvarchar, char, nchar:

  /* bad */
  DECLARE @myBadVarcharVariable  varchar;
  DECLARE @myBadNVarcharVariable nvarchar;
  DECLARE @myBadCharVariable     char;
  DECLARE @myBadNCharVariable    nchar;
  
  /* good */
  DECLARE @myGoodVarchareVariable  varchar(50);
  DECLARE @myGoodNVarchareVariable nvarchar(90);
  DECLARE @myGoodCharVariable      char(7);
  DECLARE @myGoodNCharVariable     nchar(10);

  More details here and here.

• Use only ORIGINAL_LOGIN() function because is the only function that consistently returns the actual login name that we started with regardless of impersonation. More details here.

• Always use IF statement with BEGIN-END block to prevent errors with multi line statements:

  DECLARE @x int = 0;
  DECLARE @y int = 1;
  
  /* bad */
  IF @y > @x
  SET @x = @x + 1;
  SET @y = @y - 1;
  ELSE
  PRINT(1);
  /* Msg 156, Level 15, State 1, Line 8
    Incorrect syntax near the keyword 'ELSE'. */
  
  /* good */
  IF @y > @x
  BEGIN
    SET @x = @x + 1;
    SET @y = @y - 1;
  END;
  ELSE
  BEGIN
     PRINT(1);
  END;

• FROM, WHERE, INTO, JOIN, GROUP BY, ORDER BY expressions should be aligned so, that all their arguments are placed under each other (see Example below)

TSQL Example with formating:

WITH CTE_MyCTE AS (
    SELECT
        t1.Value1  AS Val1
        , t1.Value2  AS Val2
        , t2.Value3  AS Val3
    INNER JOIN dbo.Table3 AS t2
            ON t1.Value1 = t2.Value1
    WHERE t1.Value1 > 1
         AND t2.Value2 >= 101
)
SELECT
    t1.Value1 AS Val1
    , t1.Value2 AS Val2
    , t2.Value3 AS Val3
INTO #Table3
FROM CTE_MyCTE AS t1
ORDER BY t2.Value2;

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Stored procedures and functions programming style

Recommendations from Microsoft: Stored procedure Best practice

• All stored procedures and functions should use ALTER statement and start with the object presence check (see example below) for saving GRANTs on your object. Also if you use Query Store and plan forcing and DROP and then CREATE new object you loosing plan forcing, more details here. For SQL Server 2016 and higher you can use new CREATE OR ALTER statement.
• ALTER statement should be preceded by 2 line breaks
• Parameters name should be in camelCase
• Parameters should be placed under procedure name divided by line breaks
• After the ALTER statement and before AS keyword should be placed a comment with execution example
• The procedure or function should begin with parameters checks (see example below)
• Create sp_ procedures only in master database - SQL Server will always scan through the system catalog first
• Always use BEGIN TRY and BEGIN CATCH for error handling
• Use SET NOCOUNT ON; for stops the message that shows the count of the number of rows affected by a Transact-SQL statement and decreasing network traffic. More details here and here.
• Do not use SET NOCOUNT OFF; because it is default behavior
• Use RAISERROR instead PRINT if you want to give feedback about the state of the currently executing SQL batch without lags. More details here and here.
• Call natively-compiled stored procedures without named parameters. More details here.
• All code should be self documenting
• T-SQL code, triggers, stored procedures, functions, scripts, should have a standard comment-documentation banner:

  <documentation>
  <summary>Get all databases meta data using dynamic T-SQL</summary>
  <returns>1 data set: temp table #DatabaseInfo.</returns>
  <issues>No</issues>
  <author>Konstantin Taranov</author>
  <created>2018-03-01</created>
  <modified>2019-11-14 by Konstantin Taranov</modified>
  <version>1.2</version>
  <sourceLink>https://github.com/ktaranov/sqlserver-kit/blob/master/Scripts/Databases_Report.sql</sourceLink>
  </documentation>

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Stored Procedure Example:

IF OBJECT_ID('dbo.usp_StoredProcedure', 'P') IS NULL
EXECUTE('CREATE PROCEDURE dbo.usp_StoredProcedure as SELECT 1');
GO

ALTER PROCEDURE dbo.usp_StoredProcedure(
      @parameterValue1 smallint
    , @parameterValue2 nvarchar(300)
    , @debug           bit = 0
)
/*
<documentation>
    <summary>Simple example of tsql procedure</summary>
    <returns>nothing</returns>
    <issues>No</issues>
    <author>Konstantin Taranov</author>
    <created>2019-01-01</created>
    <modified>2019-11-25 by Konstantin Taranov</modified>
    <version>1.2</version>
    <sourceLink>-</sourceLink>
    <example1>EXECUTE dbo.usp_StoredProcedure
          @parameterValue1 = 0
        , @parameterValue2 = N'BULK'</example1>
</documentation>
*/
AS
SET NOCOUNT ON;

BEGIN TRY
    IF (@parameterValue1 < 0 OR @parameterValue2 NOT IN ('SIMPLE', 'BULK', 'FULL'))
    RAISERROR('Not valid data parameter!', 16, 1);
    IF (@debug) PRINT @parameterValue2;
END TRY

BEGIN CATCH
    /* Print error information. */
    PRINT 'Error: '       + CAST(ERROR_NUMBER()) AS varchar(50)) +
          ', Severity: '  + CAST(ERROR_SEVERITY(), varchar(5))   +
          ', State: '     + CAST(ERROR_STATE(), varchar(5) )     +
          ', Procedure: ' + COALESCE(ERROR_PROCEDURE(), '-')     +
          ', Line: '      + CAST(ERROR_LINE(), varchar(5))       +
          ', User name: ' + CAST(ORIGINAL_LOGIN(), sysname);
    PRINT ERROR_MESSAGE();
END CATCH;
GO

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Dynamic T-SQL Recommendation

Highly recommended to read awesome detailed article about dynamic T-SQL by Erland Sommarskog: The Curse and Blessings of Dynamic SQL

Dynamic SQL is a programming technique that allows you to construct SQL statements dynamically at runtime. It allows you to create more general purpose and flexible SQL statement because the full text of the SQL statements may be unknown at compilation. For example, you can use the dynamic SQL to create a stored procedure that queries data against a table whose name is not known until runtime.

More details here.

• Do not use nvarchar(max) for your object’s name parameter, use sysname instead (synonym for nvarchar(128) except that, by default, sysname is NOT NULL).

  /* Bad */
  DECLARE @tableName nvarchar(max) = N'MyTableName';
  
  /* Good */
  DECLARE @tableName sysname = N'MyTableName';

• Do quote the names of your objects properly.

  /* Bad */
  DECLARE @tsql      nvarchar(max);
  DECLARE @tableName sysname = N'My badly named table!';
  SET @tsql = N'SELECT object_id FROM ' + @tableName;
  
  /* Good */
  DECLARE @tsql      nvarchar(max);
  DECLARE @tableName sysname = N'My badly named table 111!';
  SET @tsql = N'SELECT object_id FROM ' + QUOTENAME(@tableName);

• Always use sp_executesql instead EXEC to prevent sql injection. Also sp_executesql can parameterizing your dynamic statement that means plans can be reused as well (when the value of the dynamic object is the same). Also sp_executesql can even be used to output values as well (see example below).

  /* Bad EXEC example with sql injection*/
  DECLARE @tsql      nvarchar(max);
  DECLARE @tableName sysname = N'master.sys.tables; SELECT * FROM master.sys.server_principals;';
  SET @tsql = N'SELECT "name" FROM ' + @tableName + N';';
  EXEC (@tsql);
  
  /* Good sp_executesql example*/
  DECLARE @tsql      nvarchar(max);
  DECLARE @tableName sysname = N'master.sys.tables';
  DECLARE @id        int     = 2107154552;
  SET @tsql = N'SELECT name FROM '   + @tableName +
            N' WHERE object_id = ' + CONVERT(nvarchar(max), @id);
  EXEC sp_executesql @tsql, N'@ID int', @ID = @id;
  
  /* Good sp_executesql example with OUTPUT */
  DECLARE @tsql      nvarchar(max);
  DECLARE @tableName sysname = N'master.sys.tables';
  DECLARE @count     bigint;
  SET @tsql = N'SELECT @countOUT = COUNT(*) FROM ' + @tableName + N';';
  EXEC sp_executesql @tsql, N'@countOUT bigint OUTPUT', @countOUT = @count OUTPUT;
  PRINT('@count = ' + CASE WHEN @count IS NULL THEN 'NULL' ELSE CAST(@count AS varchar(30)) END);

• Do not use dynamic T-SQL if your statement is not dynamic.

  /* Bad */
  DECLARE @tsql nvarchar(max);
  DECLARE @id   int = 2107154552;
  SET @tsql = N'SELECT object_id, "name" FROM master.sys.tables WHERE object_id = ' + CAST(@id AS nvarchar(max));
  EXEC sp_executesql @tsql;
  
  /* Good */
  DECLARE @id int = 2107154552;
  SELECT object_id, "name" FROM master.sys.tables WHERE object_id = @id;

• Do not debug the code that creates the dynamic T-SQL first, debug the generated T-SQL statement instead. Use @debug variable to print (or a SELECT statement if your dynamic T-SQL is over 4000 characters) dynamic statement instead executing it. See example below.

• Do take the time to format your dynamic T-SQL.

  /* Bad @tsql formating */
  DECLARE @tsql  nvarchar(max);
  DECLARE @sep   nvarchar(30) = ' UNION ALL ';
  DECLARE @debug bit          = 1;
  
  SELECT @tsql = COALESCE(@tsql, N'') +
               N'SELECT N' + QUOTENAME(name,'''') +
               N' AS DBName, (SELECT COUNT(*) FROM ' +
               QUOTENAME(name) + N'.sys.tables) AS TableCount' +
               @sep
  FROM sys.databases
  ORDER BY name;
  
  SET @tsql = LEFT(@tsql, LEN(@tsql) - LEN(@sep));
  IF @debug = 1 SELECT @tsql AS "tsql" ELSE EXEC sp_executesql @tsql;
  
  /* Good @tsql formating */
  DECLARE @tsql  nvarchar(max);
  DECLARE @sep   nvarchar(30) = ' UNION ALL ';
  DECLARE @debug bit          = 1;
  DECLARE @crlf  nvarchar(10) = NCHAR(13) + NCHAR(10);
  
  SELECT @tsql = COALESCE(@tsql, N'') + @crlf +
               N'SELECT N' + QUOTENAME(name,'''') + N' AS DBName' + @crlf +
               N'     , (SELECT COUNT(*) FROM ' + QUOTENAME(name) + N'.sys.tables) AS TableCount' + @crlf +
               @sep
  FROM sys.databases
  ORDER BY name;
  
  SET @tsql = LEFT(@tsql, LEN(@tsql) - LEN(@sep)) + N';';
  IF @debug = 1 SELECT @tsql AS "tsql" ELSE EXEC sp_executesql @tsql;

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Official Reference and useful links

• Transact-SQL Formatting Standards (by Robert Sheldon)
• Subjectivity: Naming Standards (by Aaron Bertrand)
• General Database Conventions (by Thomas Kejser)
• Writing Readable SQL (by Red Gate)
• SQL Style Guide (by Simon Holywell)
• SQL Code Layout and Beautification (by William Brewer)
• TSQL Coding Style (by Gregory Larsen)
• User-Defined Functions
• Synonyms (Database Engine)
• Primary and Foreign Key Constraints
• sys.objects
• SQL Server Constraints
• CHECK Constraint TECHNET
• SQL Server CLR Integration
• Deploying CLR Database Objects
• CLR Stored Procedures
• User-defined Functions
• SET NOCOUNT ON (Transact-SQL)
• T-SQL Coding Guidelines Presentation (by Chris Adkin)
• Sql Coding Style
• SQL Server Code Review Checklist for Developers (by Samir Behara)
• SQL Formatting standards – Capitalization, Indentation, Comments, Parenthesis (by ApexSQL)
• In The Cloud: The Importance of Being Organized
• Naming Conventions in Azure
• The Basics of Good T-SQL Coding Style – Part 3: Querying and Manipulating Data
• SQL naming conventions (by Phi Factor)
• SQL Server Compact Object Limitations
• Dos and Don'ts of Dynamic SQL (by Thom Andrews)

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