Populating variables from within command strings

If you've ever tried to develop a stored procedure, pass a table as a parameter into the procedure, and populate a variable through a variable from that table, you'll typically get a syntax error or a message that you need to declare the variable, even if you already have.

The following code involves writing the value to a temporary table and then writing the value of the table to the variable. This may not be new, but I've found it to be helpful in certain situations:

create procedure spProp @Table varchar(25)
as
SET NOCOUNT ON
declare @Count int, @Cmd varchar(255)
create table #Temp (holder int null)
select @Cmd = 'insert into #Temp (holder) 
select count(author) from ' + @Table + ' where authid = 1
exec (@Cmd)
set @Count = (select holder from #Temp)
truncate table #Temp
print 'Value is: ' + convert(varchar(10), @Count)
SET NOCOUNT OFF
go

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This was first published in May 2001

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