Question

Hey all,
I have a stored procedure and I need to call it within another stored procedure, but I want the first one to return a value (field value).

CREATE PROCEDURE rnd_STR
(
    @Length int

)

@alphaVar varchar(10) OUTPUT
AS
SET @alphaVar = 'blah'

 #procedure body
END
GO

DECLARE @alphaVar varchar(10)

EXEC rnd_STR @alphaVar output

SELECT @alphaVar

ERRORS

Msg 102, Level 15, State 1, Procedure rnd_STR, Line 6

Incorrect syntax near ‘@alphaVar’.

Msg 137, Level 15, State 1, Procedure rnd_STR, Line 8

Must declare the scalar variable “@alphaVar”.

Msg 2812, Level 16, State 62, Line 4

Could not find stored procedure ‘rnd_STR’.

(1 row(s) affected)

didn’t work !!

How can I call it??

BTW, the returned @ID is a string

Answer 1

You say @alphaVar is varchar(10). In that case you need to use an output parameter as below. Return can only be used for integer types in stored procedures.

CREATE PROCEDURE rnd_STR
@Length int,
@alphaVar varchar(10) OUTPUT    
AS
BEGIN
SET @alphaVar = 'blah'
/* Rest of procedure body*/
END

GO

DECLARE @alphaVar varchar(10) 

EXEC rnd_STR 10, @alphaVar output

SELECT @alphaVar

Alternatively you could use a scalar UDF rather than a stored procedure.