PRINT statement in T-SQL

Question

Why does the PRINT statement in T-SQL seem to only sometimes work? What are the constraints on using it? It seems sometimes if a result set is generated, it becomes a null

Answer 1

Query Analyzer buffers messages. The PRINT and RAISERROR statements both use this buffer, but the RAISERROR statement has a WITH NOWAIT option. To print a message immediately use the following:

RAISERROR ('Your message', 0, 1) WITH NOWAIT

RAISERROR will only display 400 characters of your message and uses a syntax similar to the C printf function for formatting text.

Please note that the use of RAISERROR with the WITH NOWAIT option will flush the message buffer, so all previously buffered information will be output also.