CTE and closing semi colons - sql

Question

I'm trying to write a recursive CTE that references another CTE written before it.
The first cte nodes I've closed-off with a semicolon before writing the recursive Hierarchy cte:
WITH nodes(node, node_name, parent, parent_name) AS
(
SELECT
Grp.PermissionGroupID as node,
Grp.GroupName as node_name,
GrpLink.ParentPermissionGroupID as parent,
ParentGrp.GroupName as parent_name
FROM _CCC_Permission_Group Grp
LEFT JOIN _CCC_Permission_GroupGroup GrpLink
on Grp.PermissionGroupID = GrpLink.ChildPermissionGroupID
LEFT JOIN _CCC_Permission_Group ParentGrp
on GrpLink.ParentPermissionGroupID = ParentGrp.PermissionGroupID
);
WITH Hierarchy(node, node_name, depth, parent, parent_name)
AS
(
SELECT
node,
node_name,
0,
parent,
parent_name
FROM nodes as FirstDepth
WHERE parent IS NULL
UNION ALL
SELECT
NextDepth.node,
NextDepth.node_name,
Parent.depth + 1,
Parent.parent,
Parent.parent_name
FROM nodes as NextDepth
INNER JOIN Hierarchy as Parent
on NextDepth.parent = Parent.parent
)
SELECT *
FROM Hierarchy
OPTION (MAXRECURSION 32767)
I get the error:
Msg 102, Level 15, State 1, Line 17 Incorrect syntax near ';'.
When I remove the semicolon, I get the errors:
Msg 156, Level 15, State 1, Line 19 Incorrect syntax near the keyword
'WITH'.
Msg 319, Level 15, State 1, Line 19 Incorrect syntax near the
keyword 'with'. If this statement is a common table expression, an
xmlnamespaces clause or a change tracking context clause, the previous
statement must be terminated with a semicolon.
...I don't write CTEs (let alone recursive ones) that often, so I'm not too sure how to resolve this apparent conflict with the ; placement.

Answer 1

A CTE needs only one WITH clause. You can create stacked CTE by just adding comma at the end of previous CTE followed by CTE name
;WITH nodes(node, node_name, parent, parent_name) AS
(
....
),Hierarchy(node, node_name, depth, parent, parent_name)
AS
(
..
)
SELECT *
FROM Hierarchy
OPTION (MAXRECURSION 32767)

Answer 2

You only use a closing semi-colon at the end of the statement. All the CTEs form a single statement. When using multiple CTEs in a single statement, separate each CTE using a comma.
WITH nodes(node, node_name, parent, parent_name) AS
...
), Hierarchy(node, node_name, depth, parent, parent_name) AS (
...
)
SELECT ...
OPTION (MAXRECURSION 32767);
Note the semi-colon at the end. You should get in to the habit of including this as in the future more statements will require it (e.g. the MERGE statement must be terminated using a semi-colon).