ms sql stored procedure return data without output - sql

Question

Hey all i am trying to find examples of getting data back from a stored procedure that has no parameters sent to it nor has any returned output parameter. Though it does display data.
How can i get that from my code im using below?
Dim myCommandSQL As New SqlCommand
Dim myReaderSQL As SqlDataReader = Nothing
Dim intX As Integer = 0
Dim connSql As SqlConnection
Try
connSql = New SqlConnection("Server=sqlprod;" & _
"Database=ISS3_PROD;" & _
"User ID=xxx;" & _
"Password=xxx;" & _
"Trusted_Connection=False;")
connSql.Open()
myCommandSQL.CommandType = CommandType.StoredProcedure
myCommandSQL.CommandText = "Select_Prod"
Dim sqlParReturn1 As System.Data.SqlClient.SqlParameter = myCommandSQL.Parameters.Add("#return_value", SqlDbType.VarChar)
sqlParReturn1.Direction = ParameterDirection.Output
myCommandSQL.ExecuteNonQuery()
MsgBox(sqlParReturn1)
connSql.Close()
myCommandSQL.Dispose()
The #return_value i just put there to see what would happen but i got nothing returned.
Any help would be great!
David

Answer 1

If you assign a parameter to your command, then your stored procedure should take a parameter. Furthermore, if you specify the direction as Output, then you should mark that parameter as OUTPUT in your stored procedure.
If you just want the results of a stored procedure that doesn't take any parameters, then remove all the lines that include sqlParReturn1. Also, your command isn't a "non-query" -- you are querying for data. To get it, you should do this (I also refactored your code using some better-practice techniques):
Using connSql As SqlConnection = New SqlConnection(...)
connSql.Open()
Using myCommandSQL As SqlCommand = connSql.CreateCommand()
myCommandSQL.CommandType = CommandType.StoredProcedure
myCommandSQL.CommandText = "Select_Prod"
Using reader As SqlDataReader = myCommandSQL.ExecuteReader()
If reader.HasRows Then
While reader.Read()
// loops through the rows returned
End While
End If
End Using
End Using
End Using

Answer 2

Here is the MSDN documentation on reading data using an ADO datareader. I think their example explains this quite well, so I have just copy and pasted the example here. Just replace your SQL setup, and then you just need to call the ExecuteReader, followed by a while loop that runs while reader.Read finds rows. Just inside the loop, you can then access your columns via reader.Get..., using ordinals or columnnames.
Private Sub HasRows(ByVal connection As SqlConnection)
Using connection
Dim command As SqlCommand = New SqlCommand( _
"SELECT CategoryID, CategoryName FROM Categories;", _
connection)
connection.Open()
Dim reader As SqlDataReader = command.ExecuteReader()
If reader.HasRows Then
Do While reader.Read()
Console.WriteLine(reader.GetInt32(0) _
& vbTab & reader.GetString(1))
Loop
Else
Console.WriteLine("No rows found.")
End If
reader.Close()
End Using
End Sub