Return value of a select statement

Question

I want to retrieve the resulting value of a select statement into a string variable. Like this:

OleDbCommand cmd1 = new OleDbCommand();
cmd1.Connection = GetConnection();
cmd1.CommandText = "SELECT treatment FROM appointment WHERE patientid = " + text;
cmd1.ExecuteNonQuery();
        

I want to place the selected treatment value into a string variable. How can I do this?

Answer 1

Use ExecuteReader() and not ExecuteNonQuery(). ExecuteNonQuery() returns only the number of rows affected.

try
{
    SqlDataReader dr = cmd1.ExecuteReader();
}
catch (SqlException oError)
{

}
while(dr.Read())
{
    string treatment = dr[0].ToString();
}

Or better, use a using statement for it.

using(SqlDataReader dr = cmd1.ExecuteReader())
{
    while(dr.Read())
    {
        string treatment = dr[0].ToString();
    }
}

But if your SqlCommand returns only 1 column, you can use the ExecuteScalar() method. It returns first column of the first row as follows:-

cmd.CommandText = "SELECT treatment FROM appointment WHERE patientid = " + text;
string str = Convert.ToString(cmd.ExecuteScalar());

Also you can open your code to SQL Injection. Always use parameterized queries. Jeff has a cool blog article called Give me parameterized SQL, or give me death. Please read it carefully. Also read DotNetPerl SqlParameter article. SQL Injection very important when you are working queries.

Answer 2

Execute Scalar: Getting Single Value from the Database method to retrieve a single value (for example, an aggregate value) from a database.

cmd1.Connection = GetConnection();
cmd1.CommandText = "SELECT treatment FROM appointment WHERE patientid = " + text;
if(cmd.ExecuteScalar()==null)
{
    var treatment = cmd.ExecuteScalar();
}

Other Way: ExecuteReader()

try
{
    cmd1.CommandText ="SELECT treatment FROM appointment WHERE patientid=@patientID";
    cmd1.Parameters.AddWithValue("@patientID", this.DropDownList1.SelectedValue);

    conn.Open();
    SqlDataReader dr = cmd1.ExecuteReader();
    while (dr.Read())
    {
        int PatientID = int.Parse(dr["treatment"]);
    }
    reader.Close();
    ((IDisposable)reader).Dispose();//always good idea to do proper cleanup
}
catch (Exception exc)
{
    Response.Write(exc.ToString());
}

Answer 3

the answer:

String res = cmd1.ExecuteScalar();

the remark: use parametrized query to prevent sql injection