Question

I’ve been getting the error “Conversion failed when converting from a character string to uniqueidentifier” and am finally at the end of my rope. I’ve narrowed down my problem to as small as possible while keeping the error in tact. Install the CSV splitter from here first if you want to reproduce:

http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/Tally+Table/72993/

Here’s the test code. I’m on SQL 2008R2 but in a database that is SQL 2005 compatible:

IF  EXISTS (SELECT * FROM sys.objects WHERE object_id = OBJECT_ID(N'[dbo].[ZZZTESTTABLE]') AND type in (N'U'))
DROP TABLE [dbo].[ZZZTESTTABLE]
GO

CREATE TABLE [dbo].[ZZZTESTTABLE](
    [Col1] [uniqueidentifier] NOT NULL,
 CONSTRAINT [PK_ZZZTESTTABLE] PRIMARY KEY CLUSTERED 
(
    [Col1] ASC
)WITH (PAD_INDEX  = OFF, STATISTICS_NORECOMPUTE  = OFF, IGNORE_DUP_KEY = OFF, ALLOW_ROW_LOCKS  = ON, ALLOW_PAGE_LOCKS  = ON) ON [PRIMARY]
) ON [PRIMARY]

-- Test table that I would like to check my values against
insert dbo.ZZZTESTTABLE(Col1) values('85B049B7-CDD0-4995-B582-5A74523039C0')

-- Test string that will be split into table in the DelimitedSplit8k function
declare @temp varchar(max) = '918E809E-EA7A-44B5-B230-776C42594D91,6F8DBB54-5159-4C22-9B0A-7842464360A5'

-- I'm trying to delete all data in the ZZZTESTTABLE that is not in my string but I get the error 
delete dbo.ZZZTESTTABLE
where Col1 not in 
(
-- ERROR OCCURS HERE
    select cast(Item as uniqueidentifier) from dbo.DelimitedSplit8K(@temp, ',')
)

HERE’s the source for the DelimitedSplit8K function so you don’t have to go and find it:

CREATE FUNCTION dbo.DelimitedSplit8K
--===== Define I/O parameters
        (@pString VARCHAR(8000), @pDelimiter CHAR(1))
RETURNS TABLE WITH SCHEMABINDING AS
 RETURN
--===== "Inline" CTE Driven "Tally Table" produces values from 0 up to 10,000...
     -- enough to cover VARCHAR(8000)
  WITH E1(N) AS (
                 SELECT 1 UNION ALL SELECT 1 UNION ALL SELECT 1 UNION ALL 
                 SELECT 1 UNION ALL SELECT 1 UNION ALL SELECT 1 UNION ALL 
                 SELECT 1 UNION ALL SELECT 1 UNION ALL SELECT 1 UNION ALL SELECT 1
                ),                          --10E+1 or 10 rows
       E2(N) AS (SELECT 1 FROM E1 a, E1 b), --10E+2 or 100 rows
       E4(N) AS (SELECT 1 FROM E2 a, E2 b), --10E+4 or 10,000 rows max
 cteTally(N) AS (--==== This provides the "zero base" and limits the number of rows right up front
                     -- for both a performance gain and prevention of accidental "overruns"
                 SELECT 0 UNION ALL
                 SELECT TOP (DATALENGTH(ISNULL(@pString,1))) ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDER BY (SELECT NULL)) FROM E4
                ),
cteStart(N1) AS (--==== This returns N+1 (starting position of each "element" just once for each delimiter)
                 SELECT t.N+1
                   FROM cteTally t
                  WHERE (SUBSTRING(@pString,t.N,1) = @pDelimiter OR t.N = 0) 
                )
--===== Do the actual split. The ISNULL/NULLIF combo handles the length for the final element when no delimiter is found.
 SELECT ItemNumber = ROW_NUMBER() OVER(ORDER BY s.N1),
        Item       = SUBSTRING(@pString,s.N1,ISNULL(NULLIF(CHARINDEX(@pDelimiter,@pString,s.N1),0)-s.N1,8000))
   FROM cteStart s
;

Answer 1

The use of this UDF is indeed making procedural assumptions about order of execution. It assumes that the WHERE clause inside the UDF will be evaluated before the cast(item as uniqueidentifier). This assumption is erroneous as the optimizer is free to change the plan to move the WHERE clause above the cast and the net effect is that the cast is asked to converts a partial token to a guid (ie. a string like 18E809E-EA7A-44B5-B230-776C42594D91).

For a more detailed answer read T-SQL functions do no imply a certain order of execution.

As a workaround you can force NULL into the projected values of the UDF for the rows that don’t meet the WHERE clause:

CREATE FUNCTION dbo.DelimitedSplit8K
...
cteStart(N1, nullify) AS (--==== This returns N+1 (starting position of each "element" just once for each delimiter)
                 SELECT t.N+1, 
                    case when (SUBSTRING(@pString,t.N,1) = @pDelimiter OR t.N = 0) then 1 else 0 end
                   FROM cteTally t
                  WHERE (SUBSTRING(@pString,t.N,1) = @pDelimiter OR t.N = 0) 
                )
--===== Do the actual split. The ISNULL/NULLIF combo handles the length for the final element when no delimiter is found.
 SELECT ItemNumber = ROW_NUMBER() OVER(ORDER BY s.N1),
        Item       = case s.nullify
            when 1 then SUBSTRING(@pString,s.N1,ISNULL(NULLIF(CHARINDEX(@pDelimiter,@pString,s.N1),0)-s.N1,8000))
            else null
            end
   FROM cteStart s;
go

Because the CASE expression is guaranteed to be evaluated before the CAST (since the input of the CAST is the output of the CASE) the reordering of the WHERE clause is safe.