Conversion failed when converting the varchar value 'my returned value' to data type int

Question

I get this error in this simple SQL statement when trying to retrieve a string from a table.

Msg 245, Level 16, State 1, Procedure prViewRequirements, Line 18 Conversion

Answer 1

Try this one -

ALTER PROCEDURE [dbo].[prViewRequirements]

      @WFRouteID INT
    , @DocumentDescription VARCHAR(100) OUTPUT

AS BEGIN

    SELECT @DocumentDescription = t.DocumentDescription
    FROM dbo.tbFollowOnTracking t
    WHERE t.WFRouteID = @WFRouteID
        AND t.IsActive = 1

    IF @DocumentDescription IS NULL
        RETURN -1    

    RETURN 0

END

Answer 2

You are trying to return a varchar instead of int.

RETURN @DocumentDescription

Please either do

select @DocumentDescription

or use an output parameter (Recommended)

ALTER PROCEDURE [dbo].[prViewRequirements]
    @WFRouteID int
    , @DocumentDescription varchar(100) = null output

UPDATE - Here is the whole procedure:

alter procedure dbo.prViewRequirements
    @WFRouteID int
    , @DocumentDescription varchar(100) = null output
AS

select @DocumentDescription = '' -- Init

select @DocumentDescription = DocumentDescription
from tbFollowOnTracking
where WFRouteID = @WFRouteID
and IsActive = 1

return 0
go

/* Examples
declare @DocumentDescription varchar(100) = ''

exec dbo.prViewRequirements @WFRouteID = 10, @DocumentDescription  = @DocumentDescription output

select @DocumentDescription 
*/

Answer 3

Try This:

alter procedure dbo.prViewRequirements
    @WFRouteID int
    , @DocumentDescription varchar(100) = null output
AS

BEGIN
select @DocumentDescription = '' -- Init

select @DocumentDescription = DocumentDescription
from tbFollowOnTracking
where WFRouteID = @WFRouteID
and IsActive = 1

END

Execute the proc as shown below

DECLARE @res varchar(100)
exec dbo.prViewRequirements @WFRouteID,@DocumentDescription=@res OUTPUT
select @res