Question on variable

Question

Hello!

My textbook says there are two ways to assign a value to a variable: the SET and the SELECT:

Nevertheless I see the following example (on this page) that illustrates the third way (EXEC @VAR ...) :

DECLARE @return_status INT;    
EXEC @return_status = checkstate '2';    
SELECT 'Return Status' = @return_status;    
GO    

Could you imagine any reason why that type of assigning a value to a variable was not mentioned in a book (something like ~that's not the ordinary way to do it, it can only be used for assigning the values from the RETURN and etc...)?

Thank you in advance,
Michael

Answer 1

Hi @Mikhail Firsov ,

Thanks for your update.

Per my knowledge, if you would like to return the value or result of one procedure, the EXEC/Execute is necessary.

can I assign the return sp value to a variable using only the 3 methods posted above (WITHOUT using OUTPUT parameters)?

So the answer is NO.

Best regards
Melissa

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Answer 2

Maybe the author considered prematurely to show the method based on EXEC because this statement was not described yet.

By the way, there is a sixth way. Can you spot it? (Hint: that does not include EXEC statement).

Answer 3

Thank you all once again for your help!!!

... can't choose the answer that "was helpful" - all of them "are helpful"!!! - the previous forum was better as I could vote for multiple answers!!!

"By the way, there is a sixth way. Can you spot it? (Hint: that does
not include EXEC statement)." - no more ... What is it???

Answer 4

... "By the way, there is a sixth way. Can you spot it? (Hint: that does not include EXEC statement)." - Viorel-1, would you please explain what's the 6th method is?