I am trying to write a simple stored proc which takes three arguments ‘database name one’, ‘database name two’ and ‘table name’. The sql will then perform a row count for the defined table in each database and store it.
Working on it piecemeal I have hit the first problem in that you can’t do
select * from @tablename
I know you can use dynamic sql with the exec command but this is not ideal as I can’t return values.
The following example looks like it should work but doesn’t.
declare @tablename as nvarchar(500)
declare @sqlstring as nvarchar(500)
declare @parmdefinition as nvarchar(500)
declare @numrows as bigint
set @tablename = N'dummy_customer'
set @parmdefinition = N'@tablenameIN nvarchar(500), @numrowsOUT as bigint OUTPUT'
select @sqlstring = 'select @numrowsOUT = count(*) from @tablenameIN'
select @sqlstring
exec sp_executesql @sqlstring, @parmdefinition, @tablenameIN = @tablename, @numrowsOUT = @numrows OUTPUT
select @numrows
The error message given is
Msg 1087, Level 16, State 1, Line 1
Must declare the table variable "@tablenameIN".
Currently using SQL Server 2008 SP2.
Edit:
We’re doing this because we are doing a migration and the customer wants a report which shows the row count for each table in the source and destination database. As there are many tables being able to use sp_MSForEachTable to call the stored proc seems ideal.
Edit:
The final solution for future reference is
declare @tablename as nvarchar(500)
declare @sqlstring as nvarchar(500)
declare @parmdefinition as nvarchar(500)
declare @numrows as bigint
set @tablename = N'dummy_customers'
set @parmdefinition = N'@tablename nvarchar(500), @numrowsOUT as bigint OUTPUT'
select @sqlstring = 'select @numrowsOUT = count(*) from ' + quotename(@tablename)
exec sp_executesql @sqlstring, @parmdefinition, @tablename = @tablename, @numrowsOUT = @numrows OUTPUT
select @numrows
You’d have to use dynamic sql, and concatenate the table name into the SQL string to then execute via sp_executsql: