Stored Procedures vs. Inline SQL: Which is More Efficient in Modern RDBMS?

Question:

Is it generally more efficient to use stored procedures or inline statements on modern RDBMSs?

Answer:

Traditionally, stored procedures were considered more efficient due to pre-parsing, pre-generation of query execution plans, reduced network latency, and potential cache benefits. However, with advancements in hardware and DBMS optimization techniques, these advantages have become less significant.

Pre-parsing: Modern CPUs handle parsing overhead efficiently, making this a minimal advantage for stored procedures.

Pre-generated Query Execution Plans: Most modern DBMSs now cache query plans for individual SQL statements, reducing the performance differential between stored procedures and ad hoc SQL.

Reduced Network Latency: With the advent of high-speed networks, the overhead of sending SQL statements over the network is negligible.

Cache Benefits: Unless there is shared memory access to DBMS data, stored procedures maintain an edge in this aspect.

Parameterized / Prepared SQL: Offers the benefits of stored procedures without requiring the overhead of actual stored procedures.

Ad Hoc SQL: Modern DBMSs can "abstract" ad hoc SQL into parameterized versions, reducing performance differences compared to stored procedures.

Conclusion:

While stored procedures may still offer some performance advantages in specific edge cases, the need for their extensive use solely for performance reasons has diminished. Vanilla SQL executed as ad hoc statements or parameterized queries can often perform comparably to stored procedures on modern RDBMSs. Premature optimization through excessive stored procedure use should be avoided.

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