Question

Some days ago I asked a question about my problem and I was advised to use CONCAT_WS function. I am using CONCAT_WS on my local mysql database and it is working perfectly. But it is not working on server(application hosted) and generate the following error.

FUNCTION test.CONCAT_WS does not exist

Here test in error string is my database name on server.

My query is like this:

SELECT * FROM patient WHERE CONCAT_WS (',', LastName,FirstName,BirthDate ) NOT IN ('Abdul,Quddus,2000-09-30','Wasim,Akram,1993-09-12');

Can someone tell me the problem or suggest me another solution asked in linked question above ?

Thanks

Answer 1

The easiest way to fix it is by removing the whitespace between the function name and the parenthesis, i.e. CONCAT_WS(...) instead of CONCAT_WS (...).

From the MySQL Manual:

By default, there must be no
whitespace between a function name and
the parenthesis following it. This
helps the MySQL parser distinguish
between function calls and references
to tables or columns that happen to
have the same name as a function.

…

You can tell the MySQL server to
accept spaces after function names by
starting it with the
–sql-mode=IGNORE_SPACE option.

Also, this behavior depends on the MySQL version, this is why it works on one server and doesn’t work on another, quote from the “Function Name Parsing and Resolution” manual page:

The number of function names affected
by IGNORE_SPACE was reduced
significantly in MySQL 5.1.13, from
about 200 to about 30.