PRSQL9012032: ORDER BY Produces NULL Column

ID Number: Q68370

1.10

OS/2

buglist1.10 fixlist1.11

Summary:

PROBLEM ID: PRSQL9012032

SYMPTOMS

After running the following query

SELECT Col1

INTO NewTable

FROM OldTable

ORDER BY convert(int, Col1), Col2

the following error message is displayed:

Column names in each table must be unique. Column name ' ' in

table 'newtable' is specified more than once.

CAUSE

When a SELECT..INTO..FROM..ORDER BY query is run and there is a

column in the ORDER BY clause that is not in the SELECT list, the

new table will have a column with a null column name. Because both

columns in the ORDER BY clause in the above query are not in the

SELECT list, SQL Server tries to make two columns with a column

name of "NULL".

WORKAROUND

Perform the SELECT INTO query to select at least one of the columns

in the ORDER BY clause. This will produce only one "NULL" column

name. To remove the unwanted columns, perform a second SELECT INTO

query into a third table.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in SQL Server version

1.1. This problem has been corrected in SQL Server version 1.11,

which is available from Microsoft Product Support Services. For

more information, contact your primary support provider.