We don't, you're right. In the case of posted code the return value would be enough. I was thinking more of the original problem at that moment.

>Hi,
>
>All well and good. My question was, given the code listed in this post, why do you need an output parameter?
>Regards,
>Viv
>
>>To be precise, this was the thread in which you participated
>>
>>Re: Oledbconnection between C# and .DBC can read output para Thread #1316082
>>
>>>>Great question. I believe it was asked here two times and no solution was found how to retrieve output parameter from SP called by OleDB in .NET
>>>
>>>Why would you need an output parameter?
>>>