Command.ExecuteScalar always return null while Stored Procedure in Management Studio runs fine

I have the following SQL stored procedure with one input parameter and one out parameter.

CREATE PROCEDURE [dbo].[spCanUserEdit]
(
@username nvarchar(255)
)
AS
BEGIN
SET NOCOUNT ON;

DECLARE @CanEdit bit

SELECT
    @CanEdit = CanUserEdit
FROM tblUsers
WHERE username = LOWER(@username)
RETURN SELECT @CanEdit
END
GO

In the stored procedure above CanUserEdit column in tblUsers is bit type column and with default value to 0. Now when I execute this procedure in Management Studio it runs fine but when i use command.ExecuteScalar() in my C# code, it always returns null. Could anyone please tell me what I am doing wrong here.

Following is my C# method

public static bool CanUserEdit(string userName)
{
    using (SqlConnection conn = new SqlConnection(ConfigurationManager.ConnectionStrings[Constants.ConnectionStringName].ConnectionString))
    {
        using (SqlCommand cmd = new SqlCommand())
        {
            cmd.CommandType = CommandType.StoredProcedure;
            cmd.CommandText = "spCanUserEdit";
            cmd.Connection = conn;

            cmd.Parameters.Add(new SqlParameter("@username", userName));

            conn.Open();
            bool canEdit = (bool)cmd.ExecuteScalar();

            return canEdit;
        }
    }
}

Kind Regards

Answer

The problem is in the way you return data. If you want to use ExecuteScalar, you should not RETURN but instead simply SELECT.

Try to change the SP as following:

CREATE PROCEDURE [dbo].[spCanUserEdit]
(
 @username nvarchar(255)
)
AS
BEGIN
SET NOCOUNT ON;

DECLARE @CanEdit bit

SELECT
    @CanEdit = CanUserEdit
FROM tblUsers
WHERE username = LOWER(@username)

SELECT @CanEdit

RETURN 0
END
GO

If you can’t change the SP, but the code, the solution is to read parameter ‘@ReturnValue’ with ExecuteNonQuery.