Return number of rows affected by UPDATE statements

Question

How can I get the number of rows affected by an UPDATE query in a Stored Procedure (SQL Server 2005), as a resultset. e.g.

CREATE PROCEDURE UpdateTables
AS
B         


        

Answer 1

This is exactly what the OUTPUT clause in SQL Server 2005 onwards is excellent for.

EXAMPLE

CREATE TABLE [dbo].[test_table](
    [LockId] [int] IDENTITY(1,1) NOT NULL,
    [StartTime] [datetime] NULL,
    [EndTime] [datetime] NULL,
PRIMARY KEY CLUSTERED 
(
    [LockId] ASC
) ON [PRIMARY]
) ON [PRIMARY]

INSERT INTO test_table(StartTime, EndTime)
VALUES('2009 JUL 07','2009 JUL 07')
INSERT INTO test_table(StartTime, EndTime)
VALUES('2009 JUL 08','2009 JUL 08')
INSERT INTO test_table(StartTime, EndTime)
VALUES('2009 JUL 09','2009 JUL 09')
INSERT INTO test_table(StartTime, EndTime)
VALUES('2009 JUL 10','2009 JUL 10')
INSERT INTO test_table(StartTime, EndTime)
VALUES('2009 JUL 11','2009 JUL 11')
INSERT INTO test_table(StartTime, EndTime)
VALUES('2009 JUL 12','2009 JUL 12')
INSERT INTO test_table(StartTime, EndTime)
VALUES('2009 JUL 13','2009 JUL 13')

UPDATE test_table
    SET StartTime = '2011 JUL 01'
    OUTPUT INSERTED.* -- INSERTED reflect the value after the UPDATE, INSERT, or MERGE statement is completed 
WHERE
    StartTime > '2009 JUL 09'

Results in the following being returned

    LockId StartTime                EndTime
-------------------------------------------------------
4      2011-07-01 00:00:00.000  2009-07-10 00:00:00.000
5      2011-07-01 00:00:00.000  2009-07-11 00:00:00.000
6      2011-07-01 00:00:00.000  2009-07-12 00:00:00.000
7      2011-07-01 00:00:00.000  2009-07-13 00:00:00.000

In your particular case, since you cannot use aggregate functions with OUTPUT, you need to capture the output of INSERTED.* in a table variable or temporary table and count the records. For example,

DECLARE @temp TABLE (
  [LockId] [int],
  [StartTime] [datetime] NULL,
  [EndTime] [datetime] NULL 
)

UPDATE test_table
    SET StartTime = '2011 JUL 01'
    OUTPUT INSERTED.* INTO @temp
WHERE
    StartTime > '2009 JUL 09'


-- now get the count of affected records
SELECT COUNT(*) FROM @temp