Dynamic query to store record count in variable??

Hello everyone,
I am attempting to write a stored procedure to retrieve the record count but
have failed so far. Here's what I have tried...
SET @.value = 'SELECT COUNT(*) FROM ' + @.tablea
EXECUTE sp_executesql @.sql
...but this just ends up displaying the count to the screen, so I did...
SET @.value = 'DECLARE @.tablea_count NVARCHAR(128) SELECT
@.tablea_count=COUNT(*) FROM ' + @.tablea
EXECUTE sp_executesql @.sql, @.tablea_count OUTPUT
but this doesnt seem to work either.
Help?
Chris
Have a look here:
http://www.sommarskog.se/dynamic_sql.html
http://www.support.microsoft.com/?id=262499
Andrew J. Kelly SQL MVP
"Chris" <Chris@.discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:292BA190-F8FD-4696-A6EA-8EE930095F5A@.microsoft.com...
> Hello everyone,
> I am attempting to write a stored procedure to retrieve the record count
> but
> have failed so far. Here's what I have tried...
> SET @.value = 'SELECT COUNT(*) FROM ' + @.tablea
> EXECUTE sp_executesql @.sql
> ...but this just ends up displaying the count to the screen, so I did...
> SET @.value = 'DECLARE @.tablea_count NVARCHAR(128) SELECT
> @.tablea_count=COUNT(*) FROM ' + @.tablea
> EXECUTE sp_executesql @.sql, @.tablea_count OUTPUT
> but this doesnt seem to work either.
> Help?
> --
> Chris
sql