Return Parameters and sp_passthru

The output parameters arg1 ... argn becomes set to the values of corresponding columns from the last row returned by the last command in the command buffer. The position of the parameter determines which column’s value the parameter contains. arg1 receives values from column 1, arg2 receives values from column 2, and so on.

If there are fewer optional parameters than there are returned columns, the excess columns are ignored. If there are more parameters than columns, the remaining parameters are set to NULL.

An attempt is made to convert each column to the datatype of the output parameter. If the datatypes are similar enough to permit implicit conversion, the attempt succeeds. For information on implicit conversion, see Transact-SQL Functions in Reference Manual: Building Blocks. See the Component Integration Services Users Guide for information on which datatype represents the datatypes from each server class when in passthru mode.