Question

I’ve got a .Net web system with a VB.Net front end talking to a SQL Server 2005 back end over ADO.Net. Essentially, what I want to do is this:

Dim command As SqlCommand = New SqlCommand('', connection) command.CommandText = 'SELECT * FROM someTable ORDER BY orderValue @SortOrder' Dim sortParam As SqlParameter = New SqlParameter('@SortOrder', SqlDbType.varChar, 3) sortParam.Value = 'ASC' command.Parameters.Add(sortParam) command.Prepare() reader = command.ExecuteReader() 

Where the sort order would be passed in via a query string or some such. This code throws ‘Incorrect syntax near ‘@SortOrder’. Statement(s) could not be prepared.’

Is this even possible, or do I have some really dumb syntax error I’m not seeing?

(And, yes, the client is only running .net 2.0, so LINQ-based solutions won’t work, sadly.

Thanks, all!

Update / Response:

Well, that’s what I thought. Thanks for the sanity check, everybody. (For some context, the command string is currently being built dynamically, but we’re moving the system in a more prepared statement direction, and this was one of the edge cases I didn’t know was possible.

Thanks again!

Answer 1

No, that won’t work.

There are two possibilities that I can think of right off the top of my head to do what you’re trying to do:

1. Build the SQL string dynamically
2. Return a Data Table from your query, and then use a View to do your sorting.

---

With another 6 years or so of experience (plus SQL Server Versions), I have a way of accomplishing this.

DECLARE @SortByIdASC AS INT; SET @SortByIdASC = 1; WITH cte AS ( SELECT Id, Foo, Bar       , ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDER BY Id ASC) AS IdSortAsc       , ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDER BY Id DESC) AS IdSortDesc     FROM MyTable )  SELECT Id, Foo, Bar    FROM cte     ORDER BY CASE WHEN @SortByIdASC = 1 THEN IdSortAsc                  WHEN @SortByIdASC = 2 THEN IdSortDesc                   ELSE ''                  END             , Foo, Bar  

This also allows for Sorting up,down, or even excluding that particular column from the given sort order.