c# - Get output parameter value in ADO.NET

Question

My stored procedure has an output parameter:

@ID INT OUT

How can I retrieve this using ado.net?

using (SqlConnection conn = new SqlConnection(...))
{
    SqlCommand cmd = new SqlCommand("sproc", conn);
    cmd.CommandType = CommandType.StoredProcedure;

    // add parameters

    conn.Open();

    // *** read output parameter here, how?
    conn.Close();
}

Answer 1

The other response shows this, but essentially you just need to create a SqlParameter, set the Direction to Output, and add it to the SqlCommand's Parameters collection. Then execute the stored procedure and get the value of the parameter.

Using your code sample:

// SqlConnection and SqlCommand are IDisposable, so stack a couple using()'s
using (SqlConnection conn = new SqlConnection(connectionString))
using (SqlCommand cmd = new SqlCommand("sproc", conn))
{
   // Create parameter with Direction as Output (and correct name and type)
   SqlParameter outputIdParam = new SqlParameter("@ID", SqlDbType.Int)
   { 
      Direction = ParameterDirection.Output 
   };

   cmd.CommandType = CommandType.StoredProcedure;
   cmd.Parameters.Add(outputIdParam);

   conn.Open();
   cmd.ExecuteNonQuery();

   // Some various ways to grab the output depending on how you would like to
   // handle a null value returned from the query (shown in comment for each).

   // Note: You can use either the SqlParameter variable declared
   // above or access it through the Parameters collection by name:
   //   outputIdParam.Value == cmd.Parameters["@ID"].Value

   // Throws FormatException
   int idFromString = int.Parse(outputIdParam.Value.ToString());

   // Throws InvalidCastException
   int idFromCast = (int)outputIdParam.Value; 

   // idAsNullableInt remains null
   int? idAsNullableInt = outputIdParam.Value as int?; 

   // idOrDefaultValue is 0 (or any other value specified to the ?? operator)
   int idOrDefaultValue = outputIdParam.Value as int? ?? default(int); 

   conn.Close();
}

Be careful when getting the Parameters[].Value, since the type needs to be cast from object to what you're declaring it as. And the SqlDbType used when you create the SqlParameter needs to match the type in the database. If you're going to just output it to the console, you may just be using Parameters["@Param"].Value.ToString() (either explictly or implicitly via a Console.Write() or String.Format() call).

EDIT: Over 3.5 years and almost 20k views and nobody had bothered to mention that it didn't even compile for the reason specified in my "be careful" comment in the original post. Nice. Fixed it based on good comments from @Walter Stabosz and @Stephen Kennedy and to match the update code edit in the question from @abatishchev.