I was told that the author of the book mentioned below recently ran this query and it worked. I don't see how:

I've been trying to run code found on page 144 of the "Professional SQL Server 2005 Programming" book for the last 2 days.

--Using AdventureWorks database
SELECT c.LastName,
ISNULL(CAST(SELECT MIN(OrderDate)
FROM Sales.SalesOrderHeader o
WHERE o.ContactID = c.ContactID)AS varchar), ' Never Ordered')
AS 'Order Date'
FROM Person.Contact c

I get the error:
Msg 156, Level 15, State 1, Line 2
Incorrect syntax near the keyword 'SELECT'.
Msg 102, Level 15, State 1, Line 4
Incorrect syntax near ')'.

I've tried modify this query to no end and can't figure out what's wrong. Please help.

Kim Avery

Try putting parenthesis around the select statement, like...
SELECT
      c.LastName
    , ISNULL(CAST((SELECT MIN(OrderDate) FROM Sales.SalesOrderHeader o WHERE o.ContactID = c.ContactID) AS varchar), ' Never Ordered') 'Order Date'
FROM Person.Contact c

HTH

Adam Gossage
Lake Wylie, SC, USA

Thank you. I was putting parenthesis everywhere, but apparently not there. Thanks again.

Kim

Kim Avery