How to Suppress the SELECT Output of a Stored Procedure called from another Stored Procedure in SQL Server?

The answer you're looking for is found in a similar SO question by Josh Burke:

-- Assume this table matches the output of your procedure
DECLARE @tmpNewValue TABLE ([Id] int, [Name] varchar(50))

INSERT INTO @tmpNewValue 
  EXEC ProcedureB

SELECT * FROM @tmpNewValue

I think I found a solution.

So what i can do now in my SQL script is something like this (sql-psuedo code):

create table #tmp(xmlReply varchar(2048))
while not_done
  begin
    select top 1 record from updateTable where processed = 0
    insert into #tmp exec insertSomeData @param=record
  end
drop table #tmp

Now if there was a even more efficient way to do this. Does SQL Server have something similar to /dev/null? A null table or something?

Answering the question, "How do I suppress stored procedure output?" really depends on what you are trying to accomplish. So I want to contribute what I encountered:

I needed to supress the stored procedure (USP) output because I just wanted the row count (@@ROWCOUNT) from the output. What I did, and this may not work for everyone, is since my query was already going to be dynamic sql I added a parameter called @silentExecution to the USP in question. This is a bit parameter which I defaulted to zero (0).

Next if @silentExecution was set to one (1) I would insert the table contents into a temporary table, which is what would supress the output and then execute @@ROWCOUNT with no problem.

USP Example:

CREATE PROCEDURE usp_SilentExecutionProc
    @silentExecution bit = 0
AS
BEGIN
    SET NOCOUNT ON;

    DECLARE @strSQL VARCHAR(MAX);

    SET @strSQL = '';

    SET @strSQL = 'SELECT TOP 10 * ';

    IF @silentExecution = 1
         SET @strSQL = @strSQL + 'INTO #tmpDevNull ';

    SET @strSQL = @strSQL +     
    'FROM dbo.SomeTable ';

    EXEC(@strSQL);
END
GO

Then you can execute the whole thing like so:

EXEC dbo.usp_SilentExecutionProc @silentExecution = 1;
SELECT @@ROWCOUNT;

The purpose behind doing it like this is if you need the USP to be able to return a result set in other uses or cases, but still utilize it for just the rows.

Just wanted to share my solution.