Returns a user-defined message to the client.
Syntax
PRINT 'any ASCII text' | @local_variable | @@FUNCTION | string_expr
Arguments
'any ASCII text'
Is a string of text.
@local_variable
Is a variable of any valid character data type. @local_variable must be char or varchar, or be able to be implicitly converted to those data types.
@@FUNCTION
Is a function that returns string results. @@FUNCTION must be char or varchar, or be able to be implicitly converted to those data types.
string_expr
Is an expression that returns a string. Can include concatenated literal values and variables. The message string can be up to 8,000 characters long; any characters after 8,000 are truncated.
Remarks
To print a user-defined error message having an error number that can be returned by @@ERROR, use RAISERROR instead of PRINT.
Examples
A. Conditionally executed print (IF EXISTS)
This example uses the PRINT statement to conditionally return a message.
IF EXISTS (SELECT zip FROM authors WHERE zip = '94705')
PRINT 'Berkeley author'
B. Build and display a string
This example converts the results of the GETDATE function to a varchar data type and concatenates it with literal text to be returned by PRINT.
PRINT 'This message was printed on ' +
RTRIM(CONVERT(varchar(30), GETDATE())) + '.'