Getting null return value from stored procedure

Question

I am trying to get a string return value from a stored procedure, but I am getting null. Stored procedure runs fine and return the expected string (I checked result using SQL Server Profiler) but I get empty string in my code.

public static string GetStringValue(string pCode)
{
    String strConnString = ConfigurationManager.ConnectionStrings["MyConnectionString"].ConnectionString;
    SqlCommand cmd = new SqlCommand();

    string returnValue = "";

    cmd.CommandText = "usp_GetStringValue";
    cmd.CommandType = CommandType.StoredProcedure;
    cmd.Connection = new SqlConnection(strConnString);

    cmd.Parameters.AddWithValue("@pcode", pCode);
    //cmd.Parameters.AddWithValue("@Result", "");
    SqlParameter sqlParam = new SqlParameter("@Result", "");
    cmd.Parameters.Add(sqlParam);
    sqlParam.Direction = ParameterDirection.Output;
    cmd.Connection.Open();

    cmd.ExecuteScalar();

    //cmd.ExecuteNonQuery(); 
    returnValue = Convert.ToString(cmd.Parameters["@Result"].Value);

    cmd.Connection.Close();

    return returnValue;
}

Here is my Stored Procedure

ALTER PROCEDURE [dbo].[usp_GetStringValue]

@pcode Varchar (4),
@Result varchar(5000) OUTPUT

AS
BEGIN

 SET @Result=(Select pPath from mytable where pcode = @pcode)
 print @Result

END

Answer 1

Try adding the @Result before adding any other parameters because it's an Output parameter. Rearrange the code as listed below. It's worked for me in the past. I will probably get flamed for this, but it's Friday.

     SqlParameter sqlParam = new SqlParameter("@Result", "");
        cmd.Parameters.Add(sqlParam);
        sqlParam.Direction = ParameterDirection.ReturnValue;
 cmd.Parameters.AddWithValue("@pcode", pCode);