SQLServer: Why to NOT use “sp_” to name your stored procedures

Upon the release of SQLServer 7, our DBA warned us about naming our stored procedures starting with “sp_”, that it actually decreases performance.   I thought he was crazy.  “What is he talking about?  How could that possibly be true?  The name of a stored procedure name decrease performance?  Whatever!”  I jotted a note to research it when I got a second, just to prove him wrong, but never followed through with it.  The good news (for our clients) is that I never used the “sp_” prefix, however.

Well, I ran across this article tonight, which uses an easy example to help explain exactly what causes the performance issue.

http://www.winnetmag.com/Article/ArticleID/23011/23011.html

Let’s hope this is fixed in SQLServer 2005 J