Table-valued function - duplicate table declaration - sql

Question

I am using table-valued function in SQL Server to return data either with ties or without on some condition specified.
Now the solution works fine but I do not like the fact that I have to declare the table twice - is there any workaroud? I could probably instead of inserting into #tmp table use #ReturnTable but that data would have to be deleted once select top 1 is queried at the end of the function.
RETURNS #ReturnTable TABLE
(
idTable INT,
idOther INT,
name VARCHAR(30)
)
AS
BEGIN
DECLARE #tmp TABLE
(
idTable INT,
idOther INT,
name VARCHAR(30)
)
INSERT INTO #tmp
SELECT idTable,
idOther,
name
FROM SomeTable
IF (some condition)
BEGIN
INSERT INTO #ReturnTable
SELECT TOP 1 WITH TIES idTable,
idOther,
name
FROM #tmp
ORDER BY (some ordering)
END;
ELSE
BEGIN
INSERT INTO #ReturnTable
SELECT TOP 1 idTable,
idOther,
name
FROM #tmp
ORDER BY (some other ordering)
END;
RETURN;
END;

Answer 1

Try re-writing your function to Inline table valued function.
Based on the condition you have to use either ROW_NUMBER or DENSE_RANK window function. TOP 1 with TIES can be achieved using DENSE_RANK/RANK
RETURNS TABLE
AS
RETURN
(SELECT idtable,
idother,
NAME
FROM (SELECT CASE
WHEN (some condition) THEN Dense_rank()OVER(ORDER BY (some ordering))
ELSE Row_number()OVER(ORDER BY (some other ordering))
END AS RN,
idtable,
idOther,
NAME
FROM sometable)a
WHERE RN = 1)