💎🏭SQL Reloaded: Microsoft Fabric's Delta Tables in Action - Table Metadata I (General Information)

In a previous post I've created a delta table called Assets. For troubleshooting and maintenance tasks it would be useful to retrieve a table's metadata - properties, definition, etc. There are different ways to extract the metadata, depending on the layer and method used.

INFORMATION_SCHEMA in SQL Endpoint

Listing all the delta tables available in a Lakehouse can be done using the INFORMATION_SCHEMA via the SQL Endpoint:

-- retrieve the list of tables
SELECT * 
FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.TABLES
WHERE TABLE_TYPE = 'BASE TABLE'
ORDER BY TABLE_SCHEMA  

Output:

TABLE_CATALOG	TABLE_SCHEMA	TABLE_NAME	TABLE_TYPE
Testing	dbo	city	BASE TABLE
Testing	dbo	assets	BASE TABLE

The same schema can be used to list columns' definition:

 

-- retrieve column metadata
SELECT TABLE_CATALOG
, TABLE_SCHEMA
, TABLE_NAME
, COLUMN_NAME
, ORDINAL_POSITION
, DATA_TYPE
, CHARACTER_MAXIMUM_LENGTH
, NUMERIC_PRECISION
, NUMERIC_SCALE
, DATETIME_PRECISION
, CHARACTER_SET_NAME
FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLUMNS
WHERE TABLE_NAME = 'assets'
ORDER BY ORDINAL_POSITION

Note:
Given that the INFORMATION_SCHEMA is an ANSI-standard schema for providing metadata about a database's objects (including views, schemata), probably this is the best way to retrieve general metadata as the above (see [3]). More information over the SQL Endpoint can be obtained by querying directly the SQL Server metadata.

Table's Properties

The Delta Lake documentation reveals that a table's properties can be retrieved via the DESCRIBE command, which can be used in a notebook's cell (see [1] for attributes' definition):

-- describe table's details
DESCRIBE DETAIL Assets;

Output (transposed):

Attribute	Value
format	delta
id	83e87b3c-28f4-417f-b4f5-842f6ba6f26d
name	spark_catalog.testing.assets
description	NULL
location	abfss://[…]@onelake.dfs.fabric.microsoft.com/[…]/Tables/assets
createdAt	2024-02-05T16:18:54Z
lastModified	2024-02-05T16:29:52Z
partitionColumns
numFiles	1
sizeInBytes	3879
properties	[object Object]
minReaderVersion	1
minWriterVersion	2
tableFeatures	appendOnly,invariants

One can export the table metadata also from the sys.tables via the SQL Endpoint, though will be considered also SQL Server based metadata:

-- table metadata
SELECT t.object_id
, schema_name(t.schema_id) schema_name
, t.name table_name
, t.type_desc
, t.create_date 
, t.modify_date
, t.durability_desc
, t.temporal_type_desc
, t.data_retention_period_unit_desc
FROM sys.tables t
WHERE name = 'assets'

Output (transposed):

Attribute	Value
object_id	1264723558
schema_name	dbo
table_name	assets
type_desc	USER_TABLE
create_date	2024-02-05 16:19:04.810
modify_date	2024-02-05 16:19:04.810
durability_desc	SCHEMA_AND_DATA
temporal_type_desc	NON_TEMPORAL_TABLE
data_retention_period_unit_desc	INFINITE

Note:

1) There seem to be thus two different repositories for storing the metadata, thing reflected also in the different timestamps.

Table's Definition 

A table's definition can be easily exported via the SQL Endpoint in SQL Server Management Studio. Multiple tables' definition can be exported as well via the Object explorer details within the same IDE. 

In Spark SQL you can use the DESCRIBE TABLE command:

-- show table's definition
DESCRIBE TABLE Assets;

Output:

col_name	data_type	comment
Id	int	NULL
CreationDate	timestamp	NULL
Vendor	string	NULL
Asset	string	NULL
Model	string	NULL
Owner	string	NULL
Tag	string	NULL
Quantity	decimal(13,2)	NULL

Alternatively, you can use the EXTENDED keyword with the previous command to show further table information:

 

-- show table's definition (extended)
DESCRIBE TABLE EXTENDED Assets;

Output (only the records that appear under '# Detailed Table Information'):

Label	Value
Name	spark_catalog.testing.assets
Type	MANAGED
Location	abfss://[...]@onelake.dfs.fabric.microsoft.com/[...]/Tables/assets
Provider	delta
Owner	trusted-service-user
Table Properties	[delta.minReaderVersion=1,delta.minWriterVersion=2]

Note that the table properties can be listed individually via the SHOW TBLPROPERTIES command:

 

--show table properties
SHOW TBLPROPERTIES Assets;

A column's definition can be retrieved via a DESCRIBE command following the syntax:

-- retrieve column metadata
DESCRIBE Assets Assets.CreationDate;

Output:

info_name	info_value
col_name	CreationDate
data_type	timestamp
comment	NULL

In PySpark it's trickier to retrieve a table's definition (code adapted after Dennes Torres' presentation at Toboggan Winter edition 2024):

%%pyspark
import pyarrow.dataset as pq
import os
import re

def show_metadata(file_path, table_name):
    #returns a delta table's metadata 

    print(f"\{table_name}:")
    schema_properties = pq.dataset(file_path).schema.metadata
    if schema_properties:
        for key, value in schema_properties.items():
            print(f"{key.decode('utf-8')}:{value.decode('utf-8')}")
    else:
        print("No properties available!")

#main code
path = "/lakehouse/default/Tables"
tables = [f for f in os.listdir(path) if re.match('asset',f)]

for table in tables:
    show_metadata(f"/{path}/"+ table, table)

Output:

\assets:
org.apache.spark.version:3.4.1
org.apache.spark.sql.parquet.row.metadata:{"type":"struct","fields":[
{"name":"Id","type":"integer","nullable":true,"metadata":{}},
{"name":"CreationDate","type":"timestamp","nullable":true,"metadata":{}},
{"name":"Vendor","type":"string","nullable":true,"metadata":{}},
{"name":"Asset","type":"string","nullable":true,"metadata":{}},
{"name":"Model","type":"string","nullable":true,"metadata":{}},
{"name":"Owner","type":"string","nullable":true,"metadata":{}},
{"name":"Tag","type":"string","nullable":true,"metadata":{}},
{"name":"Quantity","type":"decimal(13,2)","nullable":true,"metadata":{}}]}
com.microsoft.parquet.vorder.enabled:true
com.microsoft.parquet.vorder.level:9

Note:
One can list the metadata for all tables by removing the filter on the 'asset' table:

tables = os.listdir(path)

Happy coding!

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References:
[1] Delta Lake (2023) Table utility commands (link)
[2] Databricks (2023) DESCRIBE TABLE (link)
[3] Microsoft Learn (2023) System Information Schema Views (link)

💎🏭SQL Reloaded: Data Management Views for the Synapse serverless SQL pool (& Microsoft Fabric Warehouse)

Unfortunately, the Dynamic Management Views (DMVs) for serverless SQL Server pools don't seem to be documented (or at least I haven't found them in the standard SQL Server documentation). I was thinking some weeks back how I could retrieve them easily as cursors aren't supported in serverless. In the end the old-fashioned loop got the job done (even if might not be the best way to do it):

 

-- retrieving the data management views in use with the number of records they held
DECLARE @view_name nvarchar(150)
DECLARE @sql nvarchar(250)
DECLARE @number_records bigint 
DECLARE @number_views int, @iterator int

DROP TABLE IF EXISTS dbo.#views;

CREATE TABLE dbo.#views (
  ranking int NOT NULL
, view_name nvarchar(150) NOT NULL
)

INSERT INTO #views
SELECT row_number() OVER(ORDER BY object_id) ranking
, concat(schema_name(schema_id),'.', name) view_name
FROM sys.all_views obj
WHERE obj.Type = 'V'
  AND obj.is_ms_shipped = 1
  --AND obj.name LIKE 'dm_exec_requests%'
ORDER BY view_name
SET @iterator = 1
SET @number_views = IsNull((SELECT count(*) FROM #views), 0)

WHILE (@iterator <= @number_views)
BEGIN 
    SET @view_name = (SELECT view_name FROM #views WHERE ranking = @iterator)
    SET @sql = CONCAT(N'SELECT @NumberRecords = count(*) FROM ', @view_name)

	BEGIN TRY
		--get the number of records
		EXEC sp_executesql @Query = @sql
		, @params = N'@NumberRecords bigint OUTPUT'
		, @NumberRecords = @number_records OUTPUT

		IF IsNull(@number_records, 0)> 0  
		BEGIN
		  SELECT @view_name, @number_records
		END 
	END TRY
	BEGIN CATCH  
	 -- no action needed in case of error
        END CATCH;

	SET @iterator = @iterator + 1
END

DROP TABLE IF EXISTS dbo.#views;

As can be seen the code above retrieves the system views and dumps them in a temporary table, then loops through each record and for each record retrieves the number of records available with the sp_executesql. The call to the stored procedure is included in a TRY/CATCH block to surpress the error messages, considering that many standard SQL Server DMVs are not supported. The error messages follow the same pattern: 

Msg 15871, Level 16, State 9, Line 187
DMV (Dynamic Management View) 'dm_resource_governor_resource_pool_volumes' is not supported. 

 On the instance I tested the code, from a total of 729 DMVs only 171 records were returned, though maybe there are some views not shown because the feature related to them was not yet configured:

 

View name	Description
INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLUMNS	Returns one row for each column (*)
INFORMATION_SCHEMA.PARAMETERS	Returns one row for each parameter of a user-defined function or stored procedure (*)
INFORMATION_SCHEMA.ROUTINE_COLUMNS	Returns one row for each column returned by the table-valued functions (*)
INFORMATION_SCHEMA.ROUTINES	Returns one row for each stored procedure and function (*)
INFORMATION_SCHEMA.SCHEMATA	Returns one row for each schema in the current database
INFORMATION_SCHEMA.TABLES	Returns one row for each table or view in the current database (*)
INFORMATION_SCHEMA.VIEW_COLUMN_USAGE	Returns one row for each column in the current database that is used in a view definition
INFORMATION_SCHEMA.VIEW_TABLE_USAGE	Returns one row for each table in the current database that is used in a view
INFORMATION_SCHEMA.VIEWS	Returns one row for each view that can be accessed by the current user in the current database
sys.all_columns
sys.all_objects
sys.all_parameters
sys.all_sql_modules
sys.all_views
sys.allocation_units
sys.assemblies
sys.assembly_files
sys.assembly_types
sys.columns
sys.configurations
sys.credentials
sys.data_spaces
sys.database_automatic_tuning_options
sys.database_automatic_tuning_options_internal
sys.database_credentials
sys.database_files
sys.database_filestream_options
sys.database_mirroring
sys.database_mirroring_endpoints
sys.database_permissions
sys.database_principals
sys.database_query_store_internal_state
sys.database_query_store_options
sys.database_recovery_status
sys.database_resource_governor_workload_groups
sys.database_role_members
sys.database_scoped_configurations
sys.database_scoped_credentials
sys.databases
sys.dm_exec_connections
sys.dm_exec_query_stats
sys.dm_exec_requests	Returns information about each request that is executing in SQL Server.
sys.dm_exec_requests_history	Returns information about each request that executed in SQL Server; provided by Microsoft for troubleshooting.
sys.dm_exec_sessions
sys.dm_external_data_processed
sys.dm_os_host_info
sys.dm_request_phases	Returns information about each request phase performed in request's execution.
sys.dm_request_phases_exec_task_stats	Returns information about each task performed in request's execution.
sys.dm_request_phases_task_group_stats	Returns information aggregated at task group level about each task performed in request's execution.
sys.endpoints
sys.event_notification_event_types
sys.extended_properties
sys.external_data_sources
sys.external_file_formats
sys.external_language_files
sys.external_languages
sys.external_table_columns
sys.external_tables
sys.filegroups
sys.fulltext_document_types
sys.fulltext_languages
sys.fulltext_system_stopwords
sys.identity_columns
sys.index_columns
sys.indexes
sys.internal_tables
sys.key_encryptions
sys.linked_logins
sys.login_token
sys.master_files
sys.messages
sys.objects
sys.parameters
sys.partitions
sys.procedures
sys.query_store_databases_health
sys.query_store_global_health
sys.resource_governor_configuration
sys.resource_governor_external_resource_pools
sys.resource_governor_resource_pools
sys.resource_governor_workload_groups
sys.routes
sys.schemas
sys.securable_classes
sys.server_audit_specification_details
sys.server_audit_specifications
sys.server_audits
sys.server_event_session_actions
sys.server_event_session_events
sys.server_event_session_fields
sys.server_event_session_targets
sys.server_event_sessions
sys.server_memory_optimized_hybrid_buffer_pool_configuration
sys.server_permissions
sys.server_principals
sys.server_role_members
sys.servers
sys.service_contract_message_usages
sys.service_contract_usages
sys.service_contracts
sys.service_message_types
sys.service_queue_usages
sys.service_queues
sys.services
sys.spatial_reference_systems
sys.sql_dependencies
sys.sql_expression_dependencies
sys.sql_logins
sys.sql_modules
sys.stats
sys.stats_columns
sys.symmetric_keys
sys.sysaltfiles
sys.syscacheobjects
sys.syscharsets
sys.syscolumns
sys.syscomments
sys.sysconfigures
sys.syscurconfigs
sys.sysdatabases
sys.sysdepends
sys.sysfilegroups
sys.sysfiles
sys.sysindexes
sys.sysindexkeys
sys.syslanguages
sys.syslockinfo
sys.syslogins
sys.sysmembers
sys.sysmessages
sys.sysobjects
sys.sysoledbusers
sys.sysperfinfo
sys.syspermissions
sys.sysprocesses
sys.sysprotects
sys.sysservers
sys.system_columns
sys.system_components_surface_area_configuration
sys.system_internals_allocation_units
sys.system_internals_partition_columns
sys.system_internals_partitions
sys.system_objects
sys.system_parameters
sys.system_sql_modules
sys.system_views
sys.systypes
sys.sysusers
sys.tables
sys.tcp_endpoints
sys.time_zone_info
sys.trace_categories
sys.trace_columns
sys.trace_event_bindings
sys.trace_events
sys.trace_subclass_values
sys.trigger_event_types
sys.type_assembly_usages
sys.types
sys.user_token
sys.via_endpoints
sys.views
sys.xml_schema_attributes
sys.xml_schema_collections
sys.xml_schema_component_placements
sys.xml_schema_components
sys.xml_schema_facets
sys.xml_schema_model_groups
sys.xml_schema_namespaces
sys.xml_schema_types
sys.xml_schema_wildcards

Notes:
1) As can be seen, also the INFORMATION_SCHEMA views don't seem to be fully supprted.
2) "(*)" in description marks the views that can be accessed by the current user in the current database.

3) I removed the number of records as they are instance specific.
4) The code should work also on a dedicated SQL Server pool.
5) I hope to come back and showcase the usage of some of the most important views. 

6) The script can be used for the Microsoft Fabric Warehouse, however each record will be shown in a different panel! One can use an additional temporary table to save the results or extend the views table and update the table with the result, like in the following script:

-- retrieving the data management views in use with the number of records they held
DECLARE @view_name nvarchar(150)
DECLARE @sql nvarchar(250)
DECLARE @number_records bigint 
DECLARE @number_views int, @iterator int

DROP TABLE IF EXISTS dbo.#views;

CREATE TABLE dbo.#views (
  ranking int NOT NULL
, view_name nvarchar(150) NOT NULL
, record_count bigint NULL
)

INSERT INTO #views
SELECT row_number() OVER(ORDER BY object_id) ranking
, concat(schema_name(schema_id),'.', name) view_name
, NULL record_count
FROM sys.all_views obj
WHERE obj.Type = 'V'
  AND obj.is_ms_shipped = 1
  --AND obj.name LIKE 'dm_exec_requests%'
ORDER BY view_name

SET @iterator = 1
SET @number_views = IsNull((SELECT count(*) FROM #views), 0)

WHILE (@iterator <= @number_views)
BEGIN 
    SET @view_name = (SELECT view_name FROM #views WHERE ranking = @iterator)
    SET @sql = CONCAT(N'SELECT @NumberRecords = count(*) FROM ', @view_name)

	BEGIN TRY
		--get the number of records
		EXEC sp_executesql @Query = @sql
		, @params = N'@NumberRecords bigint OUTPUT'
		, @NumberRecords = @number_records OUTPUT

		IF IsNull(@number_records, 0)>= 0  
		BEGIN
		  UPDATE #views
                  SET record_count = @number_records
                  WHERE view_name = @view_name
		END 
	END TRY
	BEGIN CATCH  
	 -- no action needed in case of error
    END CATCH;

	SET @iterator = @iterator + 1
END

SELECT *
FROM dbo.#views;

DROP TABLE IF EXISTS dbo.#views;

Happy coding!

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SQL Server New Features: Information Schema Views

    In the last post, Database Object Dependencies – An introduction, I was talking about metadata, in common understanding defined as “data about data”, and its meaning in the context of databases as “information (data) stored about data, the structures or objects related to data”. The SQL92, SQL99, SQL2003, and I suppose also SQL2008 and the next coming ISO standard document versions, define an information schema called INFORMATION_SCHEMA supposed to contain a minimum of metadata about a database’s underlying objects, namely view descriptors, one base table descriptor and several domain descriptors [1]. The information schema is independent from databases’ internal system metadata implementations, fact that makes it a valuable approach in retrieving common metadata, at least from this perspective being possible to write vendor independent code as long the vendor adheres and implements the ISO/IEC 9075 standard(s).

    SQL Server 2008 makes available the Information Schema Views through INFORMATION_SCHEMA schema available in each database storing information about all database objects contained in the respective database. In order to retrieve the views available under the INFORMATION_SCHEMA schema and their definitions, could be used the following query:

-- retrieving objects' definition for INFORMATION_SCHEMA 
SELECT s.name [schema_name] 
, o.name [object_name] 
, sm.definition  
FROM sys.all_sql_modules sm 
    JOIN sys.all_objects o 
       ON sm.object_id = o.object_id  
   JOIN sys.schemas s 
      ON o.schema_id = s.schema_id  
WHERE s.name = 'INFORMATION_SCHEMA' 
ORDER BY o.name 

 


    Unfortunately there are no descriptions stored together with the database objects, and even if most of the view names are self-describing, there are a few cases in which more information are required. Here is the list again with the views and their descriptions together with the link to the MSDN section that gives more information on view’s definition:

No	View	Description
1.	CHECK_CONSTRAINTS	Returns one row for each CHECK constraint
2.	COLUMN_DOMAIN_USAGE	Returns one row for each column that has an alias data type
3.	COLUMN_PRIVILEGES	Returns one row for each column that has a privilege that is either granted to or granted by
4.	COLUMNS	Returns one row for each column
5.	CONSTRAINT_COLUMN_USAGE	Returns one row for each column that has a constraint defined on it
6.	CONSTRAINT_TABLE_USAGE	Returns one row for each table that has a constraint defined on it
7.	DOMAIN_CONSTRAINTS	Returns one row for each alias data type that has a rule bound to it
8.	DOMAINS	Returns one row for each alias data type
9.	KEY_COLUMN_USAGE	Returns one row for each column that is constrained as a key
10.	PARAMETERS	Returns one row for each parameter of a user-defined function or stored procedure
11.	REFERENTIAL_CONSTRAINTS	Returns one row for each FOREIGN KEY constraint
12.	ROUTINES	Returns one row for each stored procedure and function
13.	ROUTINE_COLUMNS	Returns one row for each column returned by table-valued functions
14.	SCHEMATA	Returns one row for each schema
15.	TABLE_CONSTRAINTS	Returns one row for each table constraint
16.	TABLE_PRIVILEGES	Returns one row for each table privilege that is granted to or granted by
17.	TABLES	Returns one row for each table
18.	VIEW_COLUMN_USAGE	Returns one row for each column that is used in a view definition
19.	VIEW_TABLE_USAGE	Returns one row for each table that is used in a view
20.	VIEWS	Returns one row for views

       As stated above, the information schema is available for each database, therefore the information schema views return only the records available in the current database to which the current user has access.

Notes:
1. Above their informative character, the INFORMATION_SCHEMA definitions could be used in order to understand more about the systems tables used as source for the respective views and the relations between them.
2. Microsoft recommends not to use the INFORMATION_SCHEMA views in order to determine the schema of an object and use instead the sys.objects system catalog view [2], warning that appears in several pages from information schema documentation.
3. As it seems the SQL Server 2008 doesn’t implement all the views defined in information schema, for example ASSERTIONS, CHARACTER_SETS, COLLATIONS, TRANSLATIONS, SQL_LANGUAGES, etc. It’s also interesting to note that the respective information are available in .Net through the OleDbSchemaGuid class (see also this).

References:
[1] ISO/IEC. (1992) ISO/IEC 9075:1992,  Database Language SQL. [Online] Available from: http://www.contrib.andrew.cmu.edu/~shadow/sql/sql1992.txt (Accessed: 8 August 2010)
[2] MSDN. (2010). Querying the SQL Server System Catalog. [Online] Available from: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms189082.aspx (Accessed: 9 August 2010)

🔏MS Office: Excel for SQL Developers III (Creating a Stored Procedure from Table’s Metadata)

In a previous post I was showing a simple technique for using stored procedures for inserting/updating data within SQL Server 2005+. From a rough estimation I think that about 80% of the stored procedures built for this purpose could use the same template, without including additional business logic. Given the fact that databases store metadata about their objects, table’s metadata could be used to create such a stored procedure using VBA or more complex programming languages. SQL Server 2008 stores its table’s columns metadata in INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLUMNS view, the required information for the Products created in the previous post could be get using the following query:

-- SQL Server 2008 Table/Column Metadata SELECT TABLE_SCHEMA SchemaName 
, TABLE_NAME TableName 
, COLUMN_NAME ColumnName 
, DATA_TYPE DataType 
, CHARACTER_MAXIMUM_LENGTH Length 
, IS_NULLABLE IsNullable 
, NUMERIC_PRECISION Precision 
, NUMERIC_SCALE NumericScale 
FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLUMNS 
WHERE TABLE_NAME = 'Products' 
ORDER BY TABLE_NAME 
, ORDINAL_POSITION 

The output of the above query could be easily copy-pasted into Excel or directly exported using the SQL Server Import and Export Wizard, the range with data (without headers) being passed as parameter to GetStoredProcedure macro created for this post together with stored procedure and table’s name.

 

Macro’s construction is based on the following presumptions:
1.   The first attribute in the target table is always table’s primary key.
2.   The stored procedure considers only simple data types though it can be extended to support further data types.
3.   Stored procedure's name and table's name contains also the schemas in which the respective objects are created.
4.   CreationDate, ModifiedDate, CreatedBy and ModifiedBy are reserved words for tracking the timestamp and the User who created/modified the record.
5.   The UserID  will be the last parameter in case the CreatedBy or ModifiedBy are in scope.

And here’s the macro GetStoredProcedure with its afferent Metadata Enumeration that maps the column order from the above query, and the GetDataType function that translates the metadata related to data type to the actual parameters’ data type: 

 

Enum Metadata 
  enmSchemaName = 1 
  enmTableName = 2 
  enmColumnName = 3 
  enmDataType = 4 
  enmLength = 5 
  enmIsNullable = 6 
  enmPrecision = 7 
  enmNumericScale = 8 
End Enum 

Function GetStoredProcedure(ByVal rng As Range, ByVal ProcedureName As String, ByVal TableName As String) As String 
'builds the code for a stored procedure based on table's metadata 
Dim parameters As String 
Dim columnName As String 
Dim parameterName As String 
Dim columnValue As String 
Dim insert As String 
Dim columns As String 
Dim update As String 
Dim indexRow As Integer 
Dim ID As String 
Dim insertUserID As Boolean 

insertUserID = False 

For index = 1 To rng.Rows.Count 
    If Len(Trim(Cells(index, Metadata.enmTableName).Value)) > 0 And Len(Trim(Cells(index, Metadata.enmColumnName))) Then 
       'translating column names 
       Select Case rng.Cells(index, Metadata.enmColumnName) 
       Case "CreationDate": 
            columnName = "" 
            columnValue = "GetDate()" 
            parameterName = "" 
       Case "ModifiedDate": 
            columnName = "ModifiedDate" 
            columnValue = "GetDate()" 
            parameterName = "" 
       Case "CreatedBy": 
            columnName = "" 
            columnValue = "@UserID" 
            parameterName = "" 
            insertUserID = True 
       Case "ModifiedBy": 
            columnName = Trim(rng.Cells(index, Metadata.enmColumnName)) 
            columnValue = "@UserID" 
            parameterName = "" 
            insertUserID = True 
       Case Else: 
            columnName = Trim(rng.Cells(index, Metadata.enmColumnName)) 
            columnValue = "@" & columnName 
            parameterName = "@" & columnName 
       End Select 
       
       If index = 1 Then 
            ID = columnName 
       Else 
            columns = columns & ", " & Trim(rng.Cells(index, Metadata.enmColumnName)) 
            insert = insert & ", " & columnValue 
            
            If Len(columnName) > 0 Then 
                 update = update & Space(9) & ", " & columnName & " = " & columnValue & "" & vbCrLf 
            End If 
       End If 
       
        If Len(parameterName) > 0 Then 
             parameters = parameters & ", " & parameterName & " " & GetDataType(Trim(rng.Cells(index, Metadata.enmDataType).Value), Trim(rng.Cells(index, Metadata.enmLength).Value), Trim(rng.Cells(index, Metadata.enmPrecision).Value), Trim(rng.Cells(index, Metadata.enmNumericScale).Value)) & vbCrLf 
         End If 
    End If 
Next 

If Len(columns) > 0 Then 
    columns = Right(columns, Len(columns) - 1) 
End If 
If Len(insert) > 0 Then 
    insert = Right(insert, Len(insert) - 1) 
End If 
If Len(update) > 0 Then 
    update = Right(update, Len(update) - 10) 
End If 
If Len(parameters) > 0 Then 
    parameters = Right(parameters, Len(parameters) - 1) & IIf(insertUserID, ", @UserID int" & vbCrLf, "") 
End If 

'building the stored procedure string 
GetStoredProcedure = "CREATE PROCEDURE " & ProcedureName & "(" & vbCrLf & parameters & ")" & vbCrLf & _ 
    "AS" & vbCrLf & _ 
    "BEGIN" & vbCrLf & _ 
    "BEGIN TRY" & vbCrLf & _ 
    "    IF ISNULL(@" & ID & ", 0) = 0" & vbCrLf & _ 
    "    BEGIN" & vbCrLf & _ 
    "    -- insert statement" & vbCrLf & _ 
    "       INSERT INTO " & TableName & " (" & columns & ")" & vbCrLf & _ 
    "       VALUES (" & insert & ")" & vbCrLf & _ 
    "       SET @" & ID & " = @@IDENTITY" & vbCrLf & _ 
    "    END" & vbCrLf & _ 
    "    ELSE" & vbCrLf & _ 
    "    BEGIN" & vbCrLf & _ 
    "        -- update statement" & vbCrLf & _ 
    "        UPDATE " & TableName & vbCrLf & _ 
    "        SET " & update & _ 
    "        WHERE " & ID & "= @" & ID & vbCrLf & _ 
    "    END" & vbCrLf & _ 
    "    SELECT @" & ID & vbCrLf & _ 
    "END TRY" & vbCrLf & _ 
    "BEGIN CATCH" & vbCrLf & _ 
    "   SELECT Cast(ERROR_NUMBER() as varchar(10)) + ':' + ERROR_MESSAGE()" & vbCrLf & _   
    "END CATCH" & vbCrLf & _ 
    "END" 

End Function 

Private Function GetDataType(ByVal DataType As String, ByVal Length As String, ByVal NumericPrecision As String, ByVal NumericScale As String) As String 
'translating data types 
Select Case DataType 
    Case "varchar": GetDataType = DataType & "(" & Length & ")" 
    Case "nvarchar": GetDataType = DataType & "(" & Length & ")" 
    Case "nchar": GetDataType = DataType & "(" & Length & ")" 
    Case "decimal": GetDataType = DataType & "(" & NumericPrecision & "," & NumericScale & ")" 
    Case "numeric": GetDataType = DataType & "(" & NumericPrecision & "," & NumericScale & ")" 
    Case "money": GetDataType = DataType & "(" & NumericPrecision & "," & NumericScale & ")" 
    Case "smallmoney": GetDataType = DataType & "(" & NumericPrecision & "," & NumericScale & ")" 
    Case Else: GetDataType = DataType 
End Select 

End Function 

Note:
As always, there is enough place for improvement, I just tried to exemplify the utility of such a function that could reduce considerably developers’ time for building such stored procedures.