Choosing Between RAISERROR and THROW in SQL Server Versions

sql serversql server 2014sql-server-2008sql-server-2008-r2sql-server-2012

Here's my code right now:

BEGIN TRY
INSERT INTO TABLE (F1,F2,F3) 
VALUES ('1','2','3')
END TRY
BEGIN CATCH
;THROW
END CATCH

Works great, unless it's run on a machine with SQL 2008. I'd like to have the CATCH block do a check against the SQL version and run THROW if it's equal or higher to 2012, and RAISERROR if it's 2008. I keep running into syntax errors, and I'm wondering if it's even possible. Even something simple like this is not working for me.

BEGIN CATCH
IF ((SELECT SERVERPROPERTY('productversion')) >= 11) ;THROW
END CATCH

Any advice is appreciated.

Best Answer

No this isn't possible.

This is invalid syntax in earlier versions and will cause a compile error.

It is not possible to hide the THROW in an EXEC inside the catch block either as a parameterless throw must be directly contained inside the catch.

You would need to deploy the code version you want according to the version of SQL Server you are deploying to (and unfortunately there is not good support for this either in the SSDT tooling that I am aware of - no equivalent of including code lines selectively through conditional compilation)

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