Question

I had wrote this below stored procedure and getting incorrect statement.

ALTER PROCEDURE dbo.[Counter]
        @TableName VARCHAR(100)
    AS 
        BEGIN
            DECLARE @Counter INT
            DECLARE @SQLQ VARCHAR(200)
            SET NOCOUNT ON;

        --SET @TableName = 'Member';
        SET @SQLQ = 'SELECT COUNT(*) FROM dbo.[' + @TableName + ']';
        --Preparing the above sql syntax into a new statement(get_counter).

            --Getting an error here I had googled the prepare statement but don't know why facing this error.
        PREPARE get_counter FROM @SQLQ;
    @Counter = EXEC get_counter; -- here @resutl gets the value of the count.@TableName
        DEALLOCATE PREPARE get_counter; -- removing the statement from the memory.


    END

Then I had wrote another one:

ALTER PROCEDURE dbo.[Counter]
    @TableName VARCHAR(100)
AS 
    BEGIN
        DECLARE @Counter INT
        DECLARE @SQLQ VARCHAR(200)
        SET NOCOUNT ON;

        --SET @TableName = 'Member';
        SET @SQLQ = 'SELECT COUNT(*) FROM dbo.[' + @TableName + ']';
        --Preparing the above sql syntax into a new statement(get_counter).


    Execute @SQLQ; -- here @resutl gets the value of the count.@TableName

        --DEALLOCATE PREPARE get_counter; -- removing the statement from the memory.
        Return @Counter;

    END

It is running fine but I can’t get the result in the Counter , anyone please help me(I know that I haven’t assigned any value to the counter but if I do I get error).

After your answer martin I had replace my code with yours now its :

ALTER PROCEDURE dbo.[Counter] @SchemaName SYSNAME = 'dbo' , @TableName  SYSNAME

AS
  BEGIN
      SET NOCOUNT ON;

      DECLARE @SQLQ NVARCHAR(1000)
      DECLARE @Counter INT;

      SET @SQLQ = 'SELECT @Counter = COUNT(*) FROM ' + 
       Quotename(@SchemaName) + '.' + Quotename(@TableName);

      EXEC sp_executesql
        @SQLQ ,
        N'@Counter INT OUTPUT',
        @Counter = @Counter OUTPUT

      Return   SELECT @Counter
  END 

Now I had retrieved it .

  ALTER PROCEDURE dbo.[CreateBusinessCode]
    @MemberID                               bigint,
    @len                                        int,
    @RewardAccountID                bigint,
    @ConnectionStatusID         tinyint,
    @Assign                                 smalldatetime

AS
    BEGIN
    SET NOCOUNT ON;
    DECLARE @counter INT

    EXEC @counter = dbo.Counter 'dbo','member';

    Select @counter;


    END

Answer 1

You should use SYSNAME for object identifiers and Quotename rather than concatenating the square brackets yourself.

ALTER PROCEDURE dbo.[Counter] @TableName  SYSNAME,
                              @SchemaName SYSNAME = 'dbo'
AS
  BEGIN
      SET NOCOUNT ON;

      DECLARE @SQLQ NVARCHAR(1000)
      DECLARE @Counter INT;

      SET @SQLQ = 'SELECT @Counter = COUNT(*) FROM ' + 
       Quotename(@SchemaName) + '.' + Quotename(@TableName);

      EXEC sp_executesql
        @SQLQ ,
        N'@Counter INT OUTPUT',
        @Counter = @Counter OUTPUT

         SELECT @Counter
  END