Return Number Not String In Dynamic SQL

Question

This is my SQL syntax and (this is only a snippet unfortunately I am stuck running dynamic SQL in this instance) - but my issue is at the very end of my statement when I do the Select @numreturned what is returned is the SQL statement NOT the actual number that is returned when I run the Exec(@numreturned)

What must I alter in order to return the NUMBER instead of the SQL Statement?

Declare @numreturned varchar(max), 
@fulllocation varchar(max) = 'nagadishi.mirama.dbo.Humizan'

Set @numreturned = 'Select Count(*) FROM '+@fulllocation+' '
                   +'WHERE ([Nishan] IS NULL) '

Print @numreturned
Exec(@numreturned)

Select @numreturned

Answer 1

You could do this with sp_executesql and assigning the variable to an output parameter

DECLARE @numreturned  INT;
DECLARE @sql NVARCHAR(MAX);
DECLARE @fulllocation NVARCHAR(MAX) = 'nagadishi.mirama.dbo.Humizan';

SET @sql = N'SELECT @numreturned = COUNT(*) FROM '+@fulllocation+' '
                   +N'WHERE ([Nishan] IS NULL)';

EXEC sys.sp_executesql @sql, N'@numreturned INT OUTPUT', @numreturned = @numreturned OUTPUT;
SELECT @numreturned;