print-transact-sql.md

title	PRINT (Transact-SQL) | Microsoft Docs
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ms.date	03/16/2017
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helpviewer_keywords	PRINT statement user-defined messages [SQL Server] messages [SQL Server], PRINT statement displaying user-defined messages viewing user-defined messages conditionally returning messages [SQL Server]
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PRINT-Transact-SQL

[!INCLUDEtsql-appliesto-ss2008-all_md]

Returns a user-defined message to the client.

Transact-SQL Syntax Conventions

Syntax

-- Syntax for SQL Server, Azure SQL Database, Azure SQL Data Warehouse, Parallel Data Warehouse  

PRINT msg_str | @local_variable | string_expr  

Arguments

msg_str
Is a character string or Unicode string constant. For more information, see Constants (Transact-SQL).

@ local_variable
Is a variable of any valid character data type. **@**local_variable must be char, nchar, varchar, or nvarchar, or it must be able to be implicitly converted to those data types.

string_expr
Is an expression that returns a string. Can include concatenated literal values, functions, and variables. For more information, see Expressions (Transact-SQL).

Remarks

A message string can be up to 8,000 characters long if it is a non-Unicode string, and 4,000 characters long if it is a Unicode string. Longer strings are truncated. The varchar(max) and nvarchar(max) data types are truncated to data types that are no larger than varchar(8000) and nvarchar(4000).

RAISERROR can also be used to return messages. RAISERROR has these advantages over PRINT:

• RAISERROR supports substituting arguments into an error message string using a mechanism modeled on the printf function of the C language standard library.

• RAISERROR can specify a unique error number, a severity, and a state code in addition to the text message.

• RAISERROR can be used to return user-defined messages created using the sp_addmessage system stored procedure.

Examples

A. Conditionally executing print (IF EXISTS)

The following example uses the PRINT statement to conditionally return a message.

IF @@OPTIONS & 512 <> 0  
    PRINT N'This user has SET NOCOUNT turned ON.';  
ELSE  
    PRINT N'This user has SET NOCOUNT turned OFF.';  
GO  

B. Building and displaying a string

The following example converts the results of the GETDATE function to a nvarchar data type and concatenates it with literal text to be returned by PRINT.

-- Build the message text by concatenating  
-- strings and expressions.  
PRINT N'This message was printed on '  
    + RTRIM(CAST(GETDATE() AS nvarchar(30)))  
    + N'.';  
GO  
-- This example shows building the message text  
-- in a variable and then passing it to PRINT.  
-- This was required in SQL Server 7.0 or earlier.  
DECLARE @PrintMessage nvarchar(50);  
SET @PrintMessage = N'This message was printed on '  
    + RTRIM(CAST(GETDATE() AS nvarchar(30)))  
    + N'.';  
PRINT @PrintMessage;  
GO  

Examples: [!INCLUDEssSDWfull] and [!INCLUDEssPDW]

C. Conditionally executing print

The following example uses the PRINT statement to conditionally return a message.

IF DB_ID() = 1  
    PRINT N'The current database is master.';  
ELSE  
    PRINT N'The current database is not master.';  
GO  

D. Building and displaying a string

The following example converts the results of the GETDATE function to a nvarchar data type and concatenates it with literal text to be returned by PRINT.

-- Build the message text by concatenating  
-- strings and expressions.  
PRINT N'This message was printed on '  
    + RTRIM(CAST(GETDATE() AS nvarchar(30)))  
    + N'.';  
GO  
-- This example shows building the message text  
-- in a variable and then passing it to PRINT.  
DECLARE @PrintMessage nvarchar(50);  
SET @PrintMessage = N'This message was printed on '  
    + RTRIM(CAST(GETDATE() AS nvarchar(30)))  
    + N'.';  
PRINT @PrintMessage;  
GO  

See Also

Data Types (Transact-SQL)
DECLARE @local_variable (Transact-SQL)
RAISERROR (Transact-SQL)