I am trying to perform the following query on a SQL Server database table with a GROUP BY
on a column which results from a CASE
statement done on a subquery:
x
SELECT
AVG(sales) as avg_sales,
COUNT(*) as total_sales,
CASE
WHEN (pay_method='cc') AND (user_type='subscriber') THEN 'cc-subscribed'
WHEN (pay_method='cash') AND (user_type='subscriber') THEN 'cash-subscribed'
ELSE 'standard'
END as user_payment_type
FROM
(SELECT
column1, column2,
UserType as user_type,
CASE
WHEN column1='something' AND column2='something_else' THEN 'cc'
WHEN column1='something_else' AND column2='something' THEN 'cash'
END as pay_method
FROM MyTable) b
GROUP BY
user_payment_type
The error I am getting is
MSSQLDatabaseException: (207, b”Invalid column name ‘user_payment_type’.DB-Lib error message 20018, severity 16:nGeneral SQL Server error: Check messages from the SQL Servern”)
Note that the column name user_payment_type
is unique and does not already exist in MyTable
.
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Answer
SQL Server does not allow the use of this aliased column in the group by clause (others like MySql do allow it) because the group by clause is executed before select.
You have to use that case statement:
group by CASE
WHEN (pay_method='cc') AND (user_type='subscriber') THEN 'cc-subscribed'
WHEN (pay_method='cash') AND (user_type='subscriber') THEN 'cash-subscribed'
ELSE 'standard'
END