Question

Scenario: I am building a report in Excel to calculate commissions. This is based on Invoices from the previous month.
I created the following tsql query and created a connection using MSQuery. I tested the query and it works perfect until I change my Where statement to use the parameter "?" so I can , then I get the following error:

Incorrect Syntax near the keyword `'SELECT'`

Here is the query:

SELECT v_rpt_Invoices.Invoice_Number, v_rpt_Invoices.Territory, v_rpt_Company.Account_Nbr, v_rpt_Invoices.Company_Name, v_rpt_Invoices.Date_Invoice, 
                      v_rpt_Invoices.Location, v_rpt_Invoices.TicketNbr, v_rpt_Invoices.Project_ID, v_rpt_Invoices.Invoice_Type, v_rpt_Invoices.Status_Description, 
                      CASE WHEN TicketNbr <> 0 THEN 'Service Ticket' WHEN Project_ID IS NOT NULL THEN 'Project' ELSE 'Other' END AS Invoice_For, 
                      CASE WHEN ticketNbr <> 0 THEN
                          (SELECT     v_rpt_Service.Board_Name
                            FROM          v_rpt_Service
                            WHERE      v_rpt_Invoices.TicketNbr = v_rpt_Service.TicketNbr) WHEN Project_ID IS NOT NULL THEN Project_ID ELSE 'Other' END AS Service_Board_Project, 
                      CASE WHEN TicketNbr <> 0 THEN
                          (SELECT     Bill_Method
                            FROM          SR_Service
                            WHERE      v_rpt_Invoices.TicketNbr = SR_Service.SR_Service_RecID) WHEN project_id IS NOT NULL THEN
                          (SELECT     PM_Billing_Method_ID
                            FROM          PM_Project
                            WHERE      v_rpt_Invoices.PM_Project_RecID = PM_Project.PM_Project_RecID) ELSE 'NONE' END AS BillingMethod, v_rpt_Invoices.Invoice_Amount, 
                      CASE WHEN (TicketNbr <> 0 AND
                          (SELECT     Bill_Method
                            FROM          SR_Service
                            WHERE      v_rpt_Invoices.TicketNbr = SR_Service.SR_Service_RecID) = 'A') THEN Invoice_Amount * 0.7 WHEN (TicketNbr <> 0 AND
                          (SELECT     Bill_Method
                            FROM          SR_Service
                            WHERE      v_rpt_Invoices.TicketNbr = SR_Service.SR_Service_RecID) = 'F') THEN 0.01 WHEN (project_id IS NOT NULL AND
                          (SELECT     PM_Billing_Method_ID
                            FROM          PM_Project
                            WHERE      v_rpt_Invoices.PM_Project_RecID = PM_Project.PM_Project_RecID) = 'A') THEN Invoice_Amount * 0.7 WHEN (project_id IS NOT NULL AND
                          (SELECT     PM_Billing_Method_ID
                            FROM          PM_Project
                            WHERE      v_rpt_Invoices.PM_Project_RecID = PM_Project.PM_Project_RecID) = 'F') THEN 0.01 ELSE 0.00 END AS Cost
FROM         v_rpt_Invoices INNER JOIN
                      v_rpt_Company ON v_rpt_Invoices.Company_RecID = v_rpt_Company.Company_RecID
**WHERE     (v_rpt_Invoices.Date_Invoice >= ?)**
order by Territory, Invoice_For

Answer 1

Remove this line

 **WHERE     (v_rpt_Invoices.Date_Invoice >= ?)**

That is not valid SQL — looks like you want to comment use double dash.

Unless you are just putting the ** to show what you changed. In that case you need to have a value where the ? is the SQL won’t work.

---

As an asside, this query could be made much clearer and faster. Consider consolidating sub-queries into a join. For example, the following sub-query

SELECT     Bill_Method
FROM          SR_Service
WHERE      v_rpt_Invoices.TicketNbr = SR_Service.SR_Service_RecID

MUST be called for every row — if you make this a join you go from O(nm) to O(n+m) Where n is the size of v_rpt_Invoices and m is the size of SR_Service.

This is just one of the potential sub-queries you can optimize.

Here is an example of rolling in the sub-queries to your example
(I can’t test so it might have bugs / typos)

SELECT 
  v_rpt_Invoices.Invoice_Number,
       v_rpt_Invoices.Territory,
       v_rpt_Company.Account_Nbr,
       v_rpt_Invoices.Company_Name,
       v_rpt_Invoices.Date_Invoice, 
       v_rpt_Invoices.Location,
       v_rpt_Invoices.TicketNbr,
       v_rpt_Invoices.Project_ID,
       v_rpt_Invoices.Invoice_Type,
       v_rpt_Invoices.Status_Description, 
      CASE WHEN TicketNbr <> 0 THEN 'Service Ticket' 
           WHEN Project_ID IS NOT NULL THEN 'Project' 
           ELSE 'Other' 
      END AS Invoice_For, 
      CASE WHEN ticketNbr <> 0 THEN v_rpt_Service.Board_Name
           WHEN Project_ID IS NOT NULL THEN Project_ID 
           ELSE 'Other' 
      END AS Service_Board_Project, 
      CASE WHEN TicketNbr <> 0 THEN SR_Service.Bill_Method
           WHEN project_id IS NOT NULL THEN PM_Project.PM_Billing_Method_ID
           ELSE 'NONE' 
      END AS BillingMethod, v_rpt_Invoices.Invoice_Amount, 
      CASE WHEN (TicketNbr <> 0 AND SR_Service.Bill_Method ='A') THEN Invoice_Amount * 0.7 
           WHEN (TicketNbr <> 0 AND SR_Service.Bill_Method ='F') THEN 0.01 
           WHEN (project_id IS NOT NULL AND PM_Project.PM_Billing_Method_ID = 'A') THEN Invoice_Amount * 0.7 
           WHEN (project_id IS NOT NULL AND PM_Project.PM_Billing_Method_ID = 'F') THEN 0.01 
           ELSE 0.00 
      END AS Cost
FROM v_rpt_Invoices 
INNER JOIN v_rpt_Company ON v_rpt_Invoices.Company_RecID = v_rpt_Company.Company_RecID
LEFT JOIN   SR_Service ON v_rpt_Invoices.TicketNbr = SR_Service.SR_Service_RecID
LEFT JOIN   PM_Project ON v_rpt_Invoices.PM_Project_RecID = PM_Project.PM_Project_RecID
LEFT JOIN  v_rpt_Service ON  v_rpt_Invoices.TicketNbr = v_rpt_Service.TicketNbr
WHERE     (v_rpt_Invoices.Date_Invoice >= '1/1/2013')
order by Territory, Invoice_For