Why do I get “Procedure expects parameter ‘@statement’ of type ‘ntext/nchar/nvarchar’.” when I try to use sp_executesql?

Why do I get this error

Procedure expects parameter ‘@statement’ of type ‘ntext/nchar/nvarchar’.

when I try to use sp_executesql?

Answer

Sounds like you’re calling sp_executesql with a VARCHAR statement, when it needs to be NVARCHAR.

e.g. This will give the error because @SQL needs to be NVARCHAR

DECLARE @SQL VARCHAR(100)
SET @SQL = 'SELECT TOP 1 * FROM sys.tables'
EXECUTE sp_executesql @SQL

So:

DECLARE @SQL NVARCHAR(100)
SET @SQL = 'SELECT TOP 1 * FROM sys.tables'
EXECUTE sp_executesql @SQL