Question

I have a Stored Procedure which returns 10 columns of data. Using cmd.ExecuteScalar() returns the value of the 1st column from the 1st record.

How can I change this so that I can return different columns, by specifying their alias/dataitem name?

I want to be able to do something like:

Dim FirstName as String = cmd.ExecuteScalar("FirstName")

Answer 1

You could create a method that calls ExecuteReader, and then uses GetOrdinal with your column name to then call GetString.

My VB is non-existent, but this is the C# for an extension method.

public static class SqlCommandExt
{
    public static string ExecuteScalar(this SqlCommand cmd, string columnName)
    {
        using (var reader = cmd.ExecuteReader())
        {
            if (!reader.Read())
                return null;

            var index = reader.GetOrdinal(columnName);
            return reader.GetString(index);
        }
    }
}