Handling columns with variable names (SQL stored procedure)

Question

1.00/5 (1 vote)

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I need to have a variable handle on a data table column but don't know how. I am a rookie here anyway

How do I assign the value @PayPattnXEl to the column indicated by the variable @ColumnID.

SQL

ALTER PROCEDURE dbo.TransPayPattn	
(
 @InputArgs VARCHAR(MAX) OUTPUT,
 @ColumnID NCHAR(10),
 @RowNo INT OUTPUT,
 @Response   BIT OUTPUT
)

SET @Column = '['+@Column+']'
UPDATE PayPatternDtab SET @ColumnID = @PayPattnXEl WHERE PattnRowID=@RowNo

Posted 5-Sep-11 8:19am

redoix

Updated 5-Sep-11 20:24pm

Emilio Garavaglia

v3

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Wendelius 5-Sep-11 14:35pm

pre-tags added and all caps text corrected.

Philippe Mori 5-Sep-11 20:13pm

Why is it tagged for C++. This is SQL.

Emilio Garavaglia 6-Sep-11 2:25am

Retagged as SQL

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Wendelius · Accepted Answer · 2011-09-05T08:33:00

Do you mean you want to dynamically change the column to update in your SQL statement (and inside a procedure).

If that's correct, you cannot do it directly. Before jumping to solutions, in my opinion this isn't what you should even do unless you have strong reasons.

Don't know anything more about your goal but it looks like you're creating a procedure that would update a single column in a single row at a time. If it's true, why? For example, this may lead to excessive amount of round trips between the client and the database if several columns are updated in a single row. Also that kind of structure may lead to several other problems and extra coding.

Anyhow, if you need to execute dynamic SQL statements inside a procedure, you basically have two options:
- EXECUTE[^]
- sp_executesql[^]