How to Suppress the SELECT Output of a Stored Procedure called from another Stored Procedure in SQL Server?

Question

I'm not talking about doing a "SET NOCOUNT OFF". But I have a stored procedure which I use to insert some data into some tables. This procedure creates a xml response string, well let me give you an example:

CREATE PROCEDURE [dbo].[insertSomeData] (@myParam int) AS
DECLARE @reply varchar(2048)

... Do a bunch of inserts/updates...

SET @reply = '<xml><big /><outputs /></xml>'
SELECT @reply
GO

So I put together a script which uses this SP a bunch of times, and the xml "output" is getting to be too much (it's crashed my box once already).

Is there a way to suppress or redirect the output generated from this stored procedure? I don't think that modifying this stored procedure is an option.

thanks.

---

I guess i should clarify. This SP above is being called by a T-SQL Update script that i wrote, to be run through enterprise studio manager, etc.

And it's not the most elegant SQL i've ever written either (some psuedo-sql):

WHILE unprocessedRecordsLeft
  BEGIN
    SELECT top 1 record from updateTable where Processed = 0
    EXEC insertSomeData @param = record_From_UpdateTable
  END

So lets say the UpdateTable has some 50k records in it. That SP gets called 50k times, writing 50k xml strings to the output window. It didn't bring the sql server to a stop, just my client app (sql server management studio).

Answer 1

I don't know if SQL Server has an option to suppress output (I don't think it does), but the SQL Query Analyzer has an option (under results tab) to "Discard Results".

Are you running this through isql?

Answer 2

You could create a SQL CLR stored procedure that execs this. Should be pretty easy.

Answer 3

You said your server is crashing. What is crashing the application that consumes the output of this SQL or SQL Server itself (assuming SQL Server).

If you are using .Net Framework application to call the stored procedure then take a look at SQLCommand.ExecuteNonQuery. This just executes stored procedure with no results returned. If problem is at SQL Server level then you are going to have to do something different (i.e. change the stored procedure).

Answer 4

Man, this is seriously a case of a computer doing what you told it to do instead of what you wanted it to do.

If you don't want it to return results, then don't ask it to return results. Refactor that stored procedure into two:

CREATE PROCEDURE [dbo].[insertSomeData] (@myParam int) AS
BEGIN
DECLARE @reply varchar(2048)

--... Do a bunch of inserts/updates...

EXEC SelectOutput
END
GO

CREATE PROCEDURE SelectOutput AS
BEGIN
SET @reply = '<xml><big /><outputs /></xml>'
SELECT @reply
END

Answer 5

From which client are you calling the stored procedure? Say it was from C#, and you're calling it like:

var com = myConnection.CreateCommand();
com.CommandText = "exec insertSomeData 1";
var read = com.ExecuteReader();

This will not yet retrieve the result from the server; you have to call Read() for that:

read.Read();
var myBigString = read[0].ToString();

So if you don't call Read, the XML won't leave the Sql Server. You can even call the procedure with ExecuteNonQuery:

var com = myConnection.CreateCommand();
com.CommandText = "exec insertSomeData 1";
com.ExecuteNonQuery();

Here the client won't even ask for the result of the select.

Answer 6

I think I found a solution.

So what i can do now in my SQL script is something like this (sql-psuedo code):

create table #tmp(xmlReply varchar(2048))
while not_done
  begin
    select top 1 record from updateTable where processed = 0
    insert into #tmp exec insertSomeData @param=record
  end
drop table #tmp

Now if there was a even more efficient way to do this. Does SQL Server have something similar to /dev/null? A null table or something?

Answer 7

ever tried "SET NOCOUNT ON;" as an option?