FORMATMESSAGE()

Constructs a message from an existing message in sys.messages or from a provided string. The functionality of FORMATMESSAGE resembles that of the RAISERROR statement. However, RAISERROR prints the message immediately, while FORMATMESSAGE returns the formatted message for further processing.

Signature

FORMATMESSAGE ( { msg_number  | ' msg_string ' | @msg_variable} , [ param_value [ ,...n ] ] )

Parameters

  • msg_number — Is the ID of the message stored in sys.messages. If *msg_number* is <= 13000, or if the message does not exist in sys.messages, NULL is returned.
  • msg_string — Applies to: SQL Server (through current version).
  • @msg_variable — Applies to: SQL Server (through current version).
  • param_value — Is a parameter value for use in the message. Can be more than one parameter value. The values must be specified in the order in which the placeholder variables appear in the message. The maximum number of values is 20.

Examples

SELECT FORMATMESSAGE('This is the %s and this is the %s.', 'first variable', 'second variable') AS Result;
This is the first variable and this is the second variable.

Run against SQL Server 16.0.4265.3 on 2026-09-13. This is the output we got, not the documentation’s.

Signature and description adapted from the Microsoft SQL documentation, used under the CC BY 4.0. SQL Server and Azure are trademarks of the Microsoft group of companies. This page is not affiliated with Microsoft.