How can I get return value of stored procedure when using SqlDataReader?

Question

Is it not possible to get the return value of a stored procedeure when using a datareader? The return value is always null, but the SP returns a valid int from within SSMS.

myCommand.CommandText = "GetVenueVideos";
SqlParameter retVal = new SqlParameter("@returnValue",SqlDbType.Int);
retVal.Direction = ParameterDirection.ReturnValue;
myCommand.Parameters.Add(retVal);
myReader = myCommand.ExecuteReader();
if (myReader.Read() && myReader.HasRows)
{
    int returnValue = Convert.ToInt32(retVal.Value);
    //returnValue is null at this point
}

Solution

Agh. I've found out the reader has to be closed to get the return value! So inside the if {} block above, I added:

myReader.Close(); // Need to close data reader before getting return value.
int returnValue = (int)myCommand.Parameters["@returnValue"].Value;

...and now it works OK!

Comments

[LukeH]

This is actually documented on MSDN, although not very prominently. For example, see the "Remarks" section of msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/… or the "Closing the DataReader" section of msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/haa3afyz.aspx.

[Nikos Baxevanis]

Very nice! Closing the DataReader did the trick for me as well.