A Question Of SP Technique...

Hi All

I'm creating some SPs and I've got a query which is inserting data
into a table with a a unique constraint:

CREATE TABLE [fil_Films] (
[fil_ID] [int] IDENTITY (1, 1) NOT NULL ,
[fil_Film] [nvarchar] (50) COLLATE SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS NOT
NULL ,
CONSTRAINT [PK_Tfil_Film] PRIMARY KEY NONCLUSTERED
(
[fil_ID]
) ON [PRIMARY] ,
CONSTRAINT [IX_fil_Films] UNIQUE NONCLUSTERED
(
[fil_Film]
) ON [PRIMARY]
) ON [PRIMARY]
GO


When I insert data, should I check in the SP to see if there is an
existing record or simply catch the error if it already exists? Which
is the better technique? My current SP looks like:

CREATE PROCEDURE spAddFilm (@Type varchar(50)) AS

DECLARE @Count int

SET NOCOUNT ON

SELECT @Count = Count(fil_ID) FROM fil_Films WHERE fil_Films.fil_Film
= @Type
IF @COUNT IS NULL
BEGIN
INSERT INTO dbo.Tfil_Film (Tfil_Type) VALUES (@Type)
RETURN 1 -- OK
END
ELSE
BEGIN
RETURN 2 -- Exists
END


GO




Thanks

Sam