Question

Hello I’m trying to figure out why switching my compatability mode from 80 to 100 in MSSQL broke my function below?

    Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 (RTM) - 10.50.1617.0 (X64)   Apr 22 2011 19:23:43
Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation  Express Edition with Advanced Services (64-bit) on
Windows NT 6.1 <X64> (Build 7601: Service Pack 1)

Here is my function:

GO
ALTER FUNCTION [dbo].[GetRoot] 
(
    @Param1 int 
)
RETURNS varchar(50)
AS
BEGIN
DECLARE @ReturnValue varchar(50)
with results as
    (
        select parentouid,net_ouid from net_ou where net_ouid=@Param1
        union all
        select t2.parentouid,t2.net_ouid from net_ou t2 
        inner join results t1 on t1.parentouid = t2.net_ouid where t2.parentouid <> t1.net_ouid
    )   
    select @ReturnValue = net_ou.displayname 
    from  NET_OU RIGHT OUTER JOIN
    results ON net_ou.net_ouid = results.ParentouID where results.parentouid=results.net_ouid

    RETURN @ReturnValue

END

Answer 1

Try throwing a semi colon in front of the with:

;with results as
    (
        select parentouid,net_ouid from net_ou where net_ouid=@Param1
        union all
        select t2.parentouid,t2.net_ouid from net_ou t2 
        inner join results t1 on t1.parentouid = t2.net_ouid where t2.parentouid <> t1.net_ouid
    )   

Give this article a read to understand why you need to do that. Snipit:

However, if the CTE is not the first statement in the batch, you must
precede the WITH keyword with a semicolon. As a best practice, I
prefer to prefix all of my CTEs with a semicolon—I find this
consistent approach easier than having to remember whether I need a
semicolon or not.

Personally, I don’t do it for every CTE, but if that makes things easier for you it won’t hurt anything.