T-SQL Throw Exception

Question

I am facing the famous 'Incorrect syntax' while using a THROW statement in a T-SQL stored procedure. I have Googled it and checked the questions on StackOverflow but the solutions proposed (and strangely, accepted) do not work for me.

I am modifying a stored procedure as follows:

ALTER PROCEDURE [dbo].[CONVERT_Q_TO_O]
    @Q_ID int = NULL,
    @IDENTITY INT = NULL OUTPUT
AS
BEGIN
    SET NOCOUNT ON;

    DECLARE @EXISTING_RECORD_COUNT [int];

    SELECT
        @EXISTING_RECORD_COUNT = COUNT (*)
    FROM
        [dbo].[O]
    WHERE
        [Q_ID] = @Q_ID

    IF @EXISTING_RECORD_COUNT = 0
    BEGIN
        -- DO SOME STUFF HERE

        -- RETURN NEW ID
        SELECT @IDENTITY = SCOPE_IDENTITY()
    END
    ELSE
    BEGIN
         THROW 99001, 'O associated with the given Q Id already exists', 1;
    END
END
GO

When I code this T-SQL I get an error saying

Incorrect statement near 'THROW'. Expecting CONVERSATION, DIALOG, DISTRIBUTED, or TRANSACTION

All solutions suggest to put a semi-colon either before 'THROW' or after 'ELSE BEGIN' statements. When I modify the T-SQL I simply get the "Incorrect statement near 'THROW'" error and can't seem to find a solution.

Any suggestions?

Answer 1

This continues to occur in SQL Server 2014.

I have found that putting the semi-colon at the end of BEGIN helps.

This approach has the error

IF 'A'='A'
BEGIN
   THROW 51000, 'ERROR', 1;
END;

And this approach does not have the error

IF 'A'='A'
BEGIN;
  THROW 51000, 'ERROR', 1;
END;