sorry Scott,

but your code threw error 134 so I just tried to fix it.

But you put me on the right lane. The solution looks like this:

DECLARE @SQLstmtAs nvarchar(500)= NULL

DECLARE @CountRowsAS int = 0

SET @SQLstmt =

N'SELECT @Count = Count (*) ' +

' FROM [' + @rowDSServer+ ']' + '.'

+ '[' + @rowDSDatenbank+ ']' + '.'

+ '[' + @strDSTabelleQual+ ']' + '.'

+ '[' + @strDSTabelle+ ']' +

' WHERE [DRUCKER] = ''' + @ParPRINTER_NAME_LEN8 + '''' + ';'

EXEC sys.sp_executesql @stmt = @SQLstmt

, @params = N'@Count int OUTPUT'

, @Count = @CountRows OUTPUT

-- This SELECT statement returns the value of the OUTPUT parameter.

SELECT @CountRows

IF @CountRows > 0

BEGIN

.

.

END

ALL I needed was the output parameter. The other parameters like @rowDSServer etc. are simply filled long before I get here.:-)

thx