Question

I have a TSQL sproc that builds a query as and executes it as follows:

EXEC (@sqlTop + @sqlBody + @sqlBottom)

@sqlTop contains something like SELECT TOP(x) col1, col2, col3…

TOP(x) will limit the rows returned, so later I want to know what the actual number of rows in the table is that match the query.

I then replace @sqlTop with something like:

EXEC ('SELECT @ActualNumberOfResults = COUNT(*) ' + @sqlBody)

I can see why this is not working, and why a value not declared error occurs, but I think it adequately describes what I’m trying to accomplish.

Any ideas?

Answer 1

You could instead have the dynamic query return the result as a row set, which you would then insert into a table variable (could be a temporary or ordinary table as well) using the INSERT ... EXEC syntax. Afterwards you can just read the saved value into a variable using SELECT @var = ...:

DECLARE @rowcount TABLE (Value int);
INSERT INTO @rowcount
EXEC('SELECT COUNT(*) ' + @sqlBody);
SELECT @ActualNumberOfResults = Value FROM @rowcount;