Question

I’m trying to use IF else If logic inside an inline table valued function for SQL and returning a containstable based on that logic. but i’m having syntax problems with the IF Else IF block. thanks for the help. since i can’t parametrize the columns in the containstable i have to resort to using if else statements. here’s the code. thanks.

i’m getting

Msg 156, Level 15, State 1, Procedure FullTextSearch, Line 17 Incorrect syntax near the keyword ‘IF’.

ALTER FUNCTION [dbo].[FullTextSearch]  (            @Columns nvarchar(100), @SearchPhrase nvarchar(100) )  RETURNS TABLE  AS     RETURN    IF (@Columns='Title')    BEGIN    SELECT *          from projects as P inner join         containstable(PROJECTS, Title, @SearchPhrase) as K          on P.project_id = K.[KEY]    END  ELSE IF (@Columns='Project_Details')    BEGIN    SELECT *      from projects as P inner join     containstable(PROJECTS, Project_Details, @SearchPhrase) as K      on P.project_id = K.[KEY]    END  ELSE IF (@Columns='Contact_Info')    BEGIN    SELECT *      from projects as P inner join     containstable(PROJECTS, Contact_Info, @SearchPhrase) as K      on P.project_id = K.[KEY]    END  ELSE IF (@Columns='Project_Description')    BEGIN    SELECT *          from projects as P inner join         containstable(PROJECTS, Project_Description, @SearchPhrase) as K          on P.project_id = K.[KEY]    END  ELSE -- (@Columns='All')    BEGIN    SELECT *          from projects as P inner join         containstable(PROJECTS, (Title, Project_Details, Contact_Info,     Project_Description), @SearchPhrase) as K          on P.project_id = K.[KEY]    END 

Answer 1

You’re getting this error because you’re trying to use multiple statements in an inline table-valued function.

An inline table-valued function must contain a single SELECT statement, something along the lines of:

CREATE FUNCTION dbo.MyInlineFunction (@MyParam INT) RETURNS TABLE AS RETURN  (     SELECT first_column, second_column FROM ... ) 

Your function needs to be declared as a multi-statement function, syntax similar to this:

CREATE FUNCTION dbo.MyMultiStatementFunction (@MyParam INT) RETURNS @MyTable TABLE  (     first_column INT, second_column VARCHAR(100)  -- etc ) AS BEGIN     IF (@MyParam = 1)         INSERT INTO @MyTable (...)         SELECT ... FROM ...     ELSE         INSERT INTO @MyTable (...)         SELECT ... FROM ...      RETURN END