Question

When I run the following query against a MSSQL 2000

SELECT 
    DISTINCT(Email),
    (SELECT TOP 1 ActivityID
        FROM Activity aa, ActivityType tt 
        WHERE aa.ActivityTypeId = tt.ActivityTypeId 
            AND aa.ConsumerID = c.ConsumerID
            AND tt.ActivityType = 'Something_OptIn') optin,
    (SELECT TOP 1 ActivityID
        FROM Activity aa, ActivityType tt 
        WHERE aa.ActivityTypeId = tt.ActivityTypeId 
            AND aa.ConsumerID = c.ConsumerID
            AND tt.ActivityType = 'Something_OptOut') optout
FROM
    Activity a,
    Consumer c,
    ActivityType t
WHERE
    c.CountryID = '23'
    AND t.ActivityType = 'Something_Create'
    AND a.ActivityTypeId = t.ActivityTypeId
    AND c.ConsumerID = a.ConsumerID
    AND optin > 1

I get the following error

Server: Msg 207, Level 16, State 3, Line 1
Invalid column name 'optin'.

Why does this happen? I can’t see why it would be invalid.

Answer 1

SQL Server does not allow you to refer to aliases by name at the same level. To fix this, repeat the column definition:

WHERE
    c.CountryID = '23'
    AND t.ActivityType = 'Something_Create'
    AND a.ActivityTypeId = t.ActivityTypeId
    AND c.ConsumerID = a.ConsumerID
    AND (SELECT TOP 1 ActivityID
        FROM Activity aa, ActivityType tt 
        WHERE aa.ActivityTypeId = tt.ActivityTypeId 
            AND aa.ConsumerID = c.ConsumerID
            AND tt.ActivityType = 'Something_OptIn'
        ) > 1

Or use a subquery:

SELECT  *
FROM    (
        SELECT 
            DISTINCT(Email),
            (...) optin,
            (...) optout
        FROM
            Activity a,
            Consumer c,
            ActivityType t
        ) as SubqueryAlias
WHERE
    c.CountryID = '23'
    AND t.ActivityType = 'Something_Create'
    AND a.ActivityTypeId = t.ActivityTypeId
    AND c.ConsumerID = a.ConsumerID
    AND optin > 1