370
votes

I have a stored procedure that returns rows:

CREATE PROCEDURE MyProc
AS
BEGIN
    SELECT * FROM MyTable
END

My actual procedure is a little more complicated, which is why a stored procedure is necessary.

Is it possible to select the output by calling this procedure?

Something like:

SELECT * FROM (EXEC MyProc) AS TEMP

I need to use SELECT TOP X, ROW_NUMBER, and an additional WHERE clause to page my data, and I don't really want to pass these values as parameters.

14
I'm unsure as to what you intend to do here because when you execute the procedure, you are getting the rows back. Is it that you want to execute the procedure inside a SELECT statement so you can tie it to a pageable object? - Raj More
Is there a particular reason why you don't want to pass the values as parameters? To do it the way you are suggesting is a bit inefficent - you would be selecting more data than you need, and then not using it all. - Mark Bell
Take a look at here: sommarskog.se/share_data.html - pylover
If anyone wants to insert the sp output into a TABLE variable have a lot of columns in your sp, press Ctrl+T to output the result as text, and copy the first column line and remove extra whitespaces from there and you'll get your column names easily. To go back to Grid output press Ctrl+D - Ashraful
Beware all ye who enter here: There are only about three answers provided below atm: 1. use a function (accepted answer), 2. use a table variable or temp table and INSERT the EXEC iff your sproc isn't too complicated, 3. cheat and use OPENQUERY. But each answer is repeated an amazing number of times, many with a downright startling number of upvotes. You've been warned. 🙈 - ruffin

14 Answers

163
votes

You can use a User-defined function or a view instead of a procedure.

A procedure can return multiple result sets, each with its own schema. It's not suitable for using in a SELECT statement.

242
votes

You can

  1. create a table variable to hold the result set from the stored proc and then
  2. insert the output of the stored proc into the table variable, and then
  3. use the table variable exactly as you would any other table...

... sql ....

Declare @T Table ([column definitions here])
Insert @T Exec storedProcname params 
Select * from @T Where ...
81
votes

You either want a Table-Valued function or insert your EXEC into a temporary table:

INSERT INTO #tab EXEC MyProc
55
votes

You need to declare a table type which contains the same number of columns your store procedure is returning. Data types of the columns in the table type and the columns returned by the procedures should be same

declare @MyTableType as table
(
FIRSTCOLUMN int
,.....
)  

Then you need to insert the result of your stored procedure in your table type you just defined

Insert into @MyTableType 
EXEC [dbo].[MyStoredProcedure]

In the end just select from your table type

Select * from @MyTableType
52
votes

You must read about OPENROWSET and OPENQUERY

SELECT  * 
INTO    #tmp FROM    
OPENQUERY(YOURSERVERNAME, 'EXEC MyProc @parameters')
36
votes

It is not necessary use a temporary table.

This is my solution

SELECT  *  FROM    
OPENQUERY(YOURSERVERNAME, 'EXEC MyProc @parameters')
WHERE somefield = anyvalue
26
votes

You can copy output from sp to temporaty table.

CREATE TABLE #GetVersionValues
(
    [Index] int,
    [Name]  sysname,
    Internal_value  int,
    Character_Value sysname
)
INSERT #GetVersionValues EXEC master.dbo.xp_msver 'WindowsVersion'
SELECT * FROM #GetVersionValues
drop TABLE #GetVersionValues
8
votes

Try converting your procedure in to an Inline Function which returns a table as follows:

CREATE FUNCTION MyProc()
RETURNS TABLE AS
RETURN (SELECT * FROM MyTable)

And then you can call it as

SELECT * FROM MyProc()

You also have the option of passing parameters to the function as follows:

CREATE FUNCTION FuncName (@para1 para1_type, @para2 para2_type , ... ) 

And call it

SELECT * FROM FuncName ( @para1 , @para2 )
7
votes

If 'DATA ACCESS' false,

EXEC sp_serveroption 'SQLSERVERNAME', 'DATA ACCESS', TRUE

after,

SELECT  *  FROM OPENQUERY(SQLSERVERNAME, 'EXEC DBNAME..MyProc @parameters')

it works.

7
votes

Use OPENQUERY, and before execute set SET FMTONLY OFF; SET NOCOUNT ON;

Try this sample code:

SELECT top(1)*
FROM
OPENQUERY( [Server], 'SET FMTONLY OFF; SET NOCOUNT ON; EXECUTE  [database].[dbo].[storedprocedure]  value,value ')

If you get the error 'Server is not configured for DATA ACCESS', use this:

EXEC sp_serveroption 'YourServer', 'DATA ACCESS', TRUE
6
votes

You can cheat a little with OPENROWSET :

SELECT ...fieldlist...
FROM OPENROWSET('SQLNCLI', 'connection string', 'name of sp')
WHERE ...

This would still run the entire SP every time, of course.

4
votes

For the sake of simplicity and to make it re-runnable, I have used a system StoredProcedure "sp_readerrorlog" to get data:

-----USING Table Variable
DECLARE @tblVar TABLE (
   LogDate DATETIME,
   ProcessInfo NVARCHAR(MAX),
   [Text] NVARCHAR(MAX)
)
INSERT INTO @tblVar Exec sp_readerrorlog
SELECT LogDate as DateOccured, ProcessInfo as pInfo, [Text] as Message FROM @tblVar



-----(OR): Using Temp Table
IF OBJECT_ID('tempdb..#temp') IS NOT NULL  DROP TABLE #temp;
CREATE TABLE #temp (
   LogDate DATETIME,
   ProcessInfo NVARCHAR(55),
   Text NVARCHAR(MAX)
)
INSERT INTO #temp EXEC sp_readerrorlog
SELECT * FROM #temp
1
votes

It sounds like you might just need to use a view. A view allows a query to be represented as a table so it, the view, can be queried.

1
votes

If your server is called SERVERX for example, this is how I did it...

EXEC sp_serveroption 'SERVERX', 'DATA ACCESS', TRUE;
DECLARE @CMD VARCHAR(1000);
DECLARE @StudentID CHAR(10);
SET @StudentID = 'STUDENT01';
SET @CMD = 'SELECT * FROM OPENQUERY([SERVERX], ''SET FMTONLY OFF; SET NOCOUNT ON; EXECUTE MYDATABASE.dbo.MYSTOREDPROC ' + @StudentID + ''') WHERE SOMEFIELD = SOMEVALUE';
EXEC (@CMD);

To check this worked, I commented out the EXEC() command line and replaced it with SELECT @CMD to review the command before trying to execute it! That was to make sure all the correct number of single-quotes were in the right place. :-)

I hope that helps someone.