Microsoft SQL Server 2012 extends the EXECUTE statement to introduce WITH RESULT SETS option which can be used to change the Column Name and Data Types of the result set returned by the execution of stored procedure.

Example Using WITH RESULT SETS Feature of SQL Server 2012

Let us go through an example which illustrates WITH RESULT SETS Feature of SQL Server 2012.

Use AdventureWorks2008R2
GO

IF EXISTS (
SELECT * FROM sys.objects    
WHERE object_id = OBJECT_ID(N'[dbo].[WithResultSets_SQLServer2012]')   
AND type in (N'P', N'PC'))
DROP PROCEDURE [dbo].[WithResultSets_SQLServer2012]
GO

CREATE PROCEDURE WithResultSets_SQLServer2012
AS   
BEGIN      
SELECT                 
 TOP 5                 
                                                 PP.FirstName + ' ' + PP.LastName AS Name            
,PA.City               
,PA.PostalCode         
FROM  Person.Address PA            
INNER JOIN                   
Person.BusinessEntityAddress PBEA                          
ON PA.AddressID = PBEA.AddressID               
INNER JOIN                         
Person.Person PP                         
ON PBEA.BusinessEntityID = PP.BusinessEntityID       
ORDER BY PP.FirstName
      END
GO

Once the stored procedure is created successfully. The next step will be to execute the above stored procedure using WITH RESULT SET Feature of SQL Server 2012.

/* Execute Stored Procedure which uses WITH RESULT SETS  Feature of SQL Server 2012*/
EXEC WithResultSets_SQLServer2012GO
/*
 Example - Using WITH RESULT SETS Feature of SQL Server 2012
*/
EXEC WithResultSets_SQLServer2012
WITH RESULT SETS
(
 (
  [Employe Name]  NVARCHAR(100),
  [Employee City]       NVARCHAR(20),
  [Employee Postal Code]      NVARCHAR(30)
 )
)
GO

In the above image you could see that once you execute WithResultSets_SQLServer2012 stored procedure using WITH RESULT SET feature of SQL Server 2012 you can change the Column Name and Data Type as per your need without actually altering the exisiting stored procedure. In the second result set (above image) you could see that the Column Names are changed from Name to Employee Name, City to Employee City and PostalCode to Employee Postal Code. Similary, the data type was changes from VARCHAR to NVARCHAR.

Conclusion

The WITH RESULT SET Feature of SQL Server 2012 is a great enhancement to the EXECUTE Statement. This feature will be widely used by Business Intelligence Developers to execute a stored procedure with in an SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) Package to return the result set with required Columns and modified data types.