Question

I have a C# application and would like to return the record updated by the TSQL UPDATE TOP 1
without doing a 2nd query. Is this possible?

Answer 1

You can use OUTPUT, for example:

DECLARE @tmp TABLE (Id int not null)
UPDATE TOP (1) [YourTable]
SET [YourColumn] = newValue
OUTPUT inserted.Id INTO @tmp

SELECT * FROM @tmp

(add more columns to suit)

Note the INTO here is necessary in the general case to avoid issues with triggers; otherwise it is common to see:

The target table ‘YourTable’ of the DML statement cannot have any enabled triggers if the statement contains an OUTPUT clause without INTO clause.