Capture Stored Procedure print output in .NET

Question

Is it possible to capture print output from a T-SQL stored procedure in .NET?

I have a lot of legacy procs that use the print as means of errorMessaging. An example, is it possible to access the outprint 'word' from following PROC?

-- The PROC
CREATE PROC usp_PrintWord AS
    PRINT 'word'

// Some C# Code to would like to pull out 'word'
SqlCommand cmd = new SqlCommand("usp_printWord", TheConnection);
cmd.CommandType = CommandType.StoredProcedure;
// string ProcPrint = ???

Answer 1

You can do this by adding an event handler to the InfoMessage event on the connection.

 myConnection.InfoMessage += new SqlInfoMessageEventHandler(myConnection_InfoMessage);

    void myConnection_InfoMessage(object sender, SqlInfoMessageEventArgs e)
    {
       Console.WriteLine(e.Message);
    }

Answer 2

This is really handy if you want to capture Print output in LinqPad's output console:

SqlConnection conn = new SqlConnection(ConnectionString);
//anonymous function to dump print statements to output console
conn.InfoMessage += (object obj, SqlInfoMessageEventArgs e)=>{
                e.Message.Dump();
            };

Answer 3

To get the output into a variable:

string printOutput = "";

using (var conn = new SqlConnection(...))
{
    // handle this event to receive the print output
    conn.InfoMessage += (object obj, SqlInfoMessageEventArgs e) => {
        printOutput += e.Message;
    };

    // execute command, etc.
}

Console.Write(printOutput);