ExecuteNonQuery doesn't return results

This is my (rough) code (DAL):

int i;
// Some other declarations

SqlCommand myCmdObject = new SqlCommand("some query");

conn.open();
i = myCmdObject.ExecuteNonQuery();
conn.close();

The problem is: Even though there is a record present on my SELECT query, the value in i remains -1.

What could be the problem?

What kind of query do you perform? Using ExecuteNonQuery is intended for UPDATE, INSERT and DELETE queries. As per the documentation:

For UPDATE, INSERT, and DELETE statements, the return value is the number of rows affected by the command. When a trigger exists on a table being inserted or updated, the return value includes the number of rows affected by both the insert or update operation and the number of rows affected by the trigger or triggers. For all other types of statements, the return value is -1.

Whenever you want to execute an SQL statement that shouldn't return a value or a record set, the ExecuteNonQuery should be used.

So if you want to run an update, delete, or insert statement, you should use the ExecuteNonQuery. ExecuteNonQuery returns the number of rows affected by the statement. This sounds very nice, but whenever you use the SQL Server 2005 IDE or Visual Studio to create a stored procedure it adds a small line that ruins everything.

That line is: SET NOCOUNT ON; This line turns on the NOCOUNT feature of SQL Server, which "Stops the message indicating the number of rows affected by a Transact-SQL statement from being returned as part of the results" and therefore it makes the stored procedure always to return -1 when called from the application (in my case a web application).

In conclusion, remove that line from your stored procedure, and you will now get a value indicating the number of rows affected by the statement.

Happy programming!

http://aspsoft.blogs.com/jonas/2006/10/executenonquery.html

You use EXECUTENONQUERY() for INSERT,UPDATE and DELETE.

But for SELECT you must use EXECUTEREADER().........

Because the SET NOCOUNT option is set to on. Remove the line "SET NOCOUNT ON;" in your query or stored procedure.

See more at SqlCommand.ExecuteNonQuery() returns -1 when doing Insert / Update / Delete.