CODEWITHSUNDEEP
sql-serverstring
edgarmtze
edgarmtze

Reputation: 25038

Assign result of dynamic sql to variable

I'm doing dynamic SQL to convert all columns in a table a string

so After after all I do

EXEC(@template);

where @template is the dynamic generated query so: 

col1  col2 col3
---------------
1    7    13 
2    8    14
3    9    15
4   10    16
5   11    17
6   12    18

(this results: 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18)

How do I assign to a variable the resulting string

something like?

DECLARE  @result AS varchar(max);
 SET @result = EXEC(@template);

Upvotes: 62

Views: 205447

Answers (5)

Disha Sojitra
Disha Sojitra

Reputation: 7

You should try this while getting SEQUENCE value in a variable from the dynamic table. 

DECLARE @temp table (#temp varchar (MAX));
DECLARE @SeqID nvarchar(150);
DECLARE @Name varchar(150); 

SET @Name = (Select Name from table)
SET @SeqID = 'SELECT NEXT VALUE FOR '+ @Name + '_Sequence'
insert @temp exec (@SeqID)

SET @SeqID = (select * from @temp )
PRINT @SeqID

Result:

(1 row(s) affected)
 1

Upvotes: 1

Adam
Adam

Reputation: 601

Most of these answers use sp_executesql as the solution to this problem. I have found that there are some limitations when using sp_executesql, which I will not go into, but I wanted to offer an alternative using EXEC(). I am using SQL Server 2008 and I know that some of the objects I am using in this script are not available in earlier versions of SQL Server so be wary.

DECLARE @CountResults TABLE (CountReturned INT)
DECLARE 
    @SqlStatement VARCHAR(8000) = 'SELECT COUNT(*) FROM table'
    , @Count INT

INSERT @CountResults
EXEC(@SqlStatement)

SET @Count = (SELECT CountReturned FROM @CountResults)
SELECT @Count

Upvotes: 26

Chris Maakal
Chris Maakal

Reputation: 29

Sample to execute an SQL string within the stored procedure:

(I'm using this to compare the number of entries on each table as first check for a regression test, within a cursor loop)

select @SqlQuery1 = N'select @CountResult1 = (select isnull(count(*),0) from ' + @DatabaseFirst+'.dbo.'+@ObjectName + ')'

execute sp_executesql    @SqlQuery1 , N'@CountResult1 int OUTPUT',     @CountResult1 = @CountResult1 output;

Upvotes: 2

Mikael Eriksson
Mikael Eriksson

Reputation: 138960

You can use sp_executesql with output parameter.

declare @S nvarchar(max) = 'select @x = 1'

declare @xx int
set @xx = 0

exec sp_executesql @S, N'@x int out', @xx out

select @xx

Result:

(No column name)
1

Edit

In my sample @S is instead of your @template. As you can see I assign a value to @x so you need to modify @template so it internally assigns the comma separated string to the variable you define in your second argument to sp_executesql. In my sample N'@x int out'. You probably want a varchar(max) output parameter. Something like N'@Result varchar(max) out'

Here is another example building a comma separated string from master..spt_values

declare @template nvarchar(max)
set @template = 
'select @Result += cast(number as varchar(10))+'',''
from master..spt_values
where type = ''P''
'

declare @CommaString varchar(max)
set @CommaString = ''

exec sp_executesql @template, N'@Result varchar(max) out', @CommaString out

select @CommaString

Upvotes: 110

Andomar
Andomar

Reputation: 238048

You could use sp_executesql instead of exec. That allows you to specify an output parameter.

declare @out_var varchar(max);
execute sp_executesql 
    N'select @out_var = ''hello world''', 
    N'@out_var varchar(max) OUTPUT', 
    @out_var = @out_var output;
select @out_var;

This prints "hello world".

Upvotes: 21

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