How do I call a stored procedure with arguments using sqlcmd.exe?

Question

I need to call a stored procedure and pass arguments in from Powershell. I think the best option is to use sqlcmd.exe but I'm not sure how to pass arguments to the stored proc using this tool.

Answer 1

sqlcmd.exe supports variable substitution and parameters via the /v argument, see Using sqlcmd with Scripting Variables. For example:

sqlcmd -E -d <mydb> -Q "exec usp_myproc @variable=$(myparam)" /v myparam=1

will invoke the procedure passing the value 1 to the script to be substituted for the variable $(myparam). Note that sqlcmd variable substitution is a string replacement of $(variable) which occurs in sqlcmd, befor the batch (request) is sent to the SQL Server.

Answer 2

The Invoke-Sqlcmd cmdlet lets you run your sqlcmd script files in a Windows PowerShell environment. Much of what you can do with sqlcmd can also be done using Invoke-Sqlcmd.

Example:

$myparam = "..." Invoke-Sqlcmd -Query "EXEC sp_myproc $myparam" -ServerInstance "MyComputer\MyInstance"