Question

i’m trying to wrap a simple function within an a check for existence why am i getting incorrect syntax?

updated:

GO

IF EXISTS (SELECT TOP 1 * FROM Customers)
    BEGIN
        USE [rstestDB]

        SET ANSI_NULLS ON

        SET QUOTED_IDENTIFIER ON

        CREATE FUNCTION [dbo].[udf_GetName] 
        (
            @p1 nvarchar(25)
        )
        RETURNS varchar
        AS
        BEGIN
            DECLARE @Result varchar(25)
            SELECT @Result = 'John Doe'
            RETURN @Result
        END
    END
GO

Getting following error:
Msg 156, Level 15, State 1, Line 10
Incorrect syntax near the keyword ‘FUNCTION’.
Msg 178, Level 15, State 1, Line 19
A RETURN statement with a return value cannot be used in this context.

Answer 1

GO is a batch separator.

GO is a command recognized by the sqlcmd and osql utilities that send commands to the SQL engine, it’s not valid SQL.

Take out all the GOs except for at the very end.

A simpler example that will also fail:

IF 1=1
BEGIN
 SELECT 'FOO'
 GO
END

All your settings should really be at the very beginning of the script since they will persist for the length of the session.