Question

I know the preferred method for returning scalar values from stored procs is either using RETURN or an OUTPUT parameter. But lets say that I have a stored proc that returns the value using a select statement:

CREATE PROC spReturnNumber AS

SELECT 1

Is it possible to get this value from within another stored proc?

CREATE PROC spCheckNumber AS

EXEC spReturnNumber -- <-- get the return value here?

Clarification: I need a solution that doesn’t require using an OUTPUT parameter, or using RETURN to return the value.

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

You could use insert-exec to store the result of a stored procedure in a table:

declare @t table (col1 int)
insert @t exec spReturnNumber
return (select col1 from @t)

The definition of the table has to match the result set of the stored procedure.