Stored proc with select statement sometimes returns the value

I think the debate is useful for newbies - where people describe a style, and a reason "why", then a newbie can decide what works best for them. For us old-hands "our way is best" probably pervades!! but ... following various discussions I have started doing "leading comma". I find that it works in many places, but is more troublesome in others, so I am not sure ... and I hate having some-and-some in my code ... but it is an instance where, after many decades, I have made a change to my coding style in an effort to catch more bugs.

Either way, I think consistency is the most important thing. Once someone reads your code they can understand all your code - they don't have to say "What did s/he do THIS time"!!. And as you say "one test works out OK...When people see my code, they usually can interpret it very quickly" which I think is an excellent definition of good code style.

That makes me very angry too ... I'll post separately on that rather than hijack this thread. (link)