Getting various errors using dynamic SQL - sql

Question

SET #SQLSTATEMENT = 'INSERT INTO #MAX_STORAGE
SELECT MAX(A.[ROW])
FROM
(SELECT *
FROM [DATABASE].[dbo].[Refined_Est_Probability_09_MODIFIED]
WHERE
[FIPST_ENT] = ' + #FIPST_ENT + '
AND [FIPCNTY_ENT] = ' + #FIPCNTY_ENT + '
AND [SIC_ENT] = ' + #SIC2_ENT + '
AND [FMSZ_ENT] = ' + #FMSZENT_ENT + '
AND [ESTABLISHMENTS_AVAILABLE_FMSZEST <= ' + #MAXIMUM_FMSZEST+'] > 0) A'
EXEC(#SQLSTATEMENT)
I was running the dynamic SQL query above as part of a stored procedure I had written and got the following error:
Msg 207, Level 16, State 1, Line 7
Invalid column name 'A'.
I then changed my query so that it looked like this (eliminated the alias A):
SET #SQLSTATEMENT =
'INSERT INTO #MAX_STORAGE
SELECT
MAX([ROW])
FROM
(SELECT *
FROM [DATABASE].[dbo].[Refined_Est_Probability_09_MODIFIED]
WHERE [FIPST_ENT] = ' + #FIPST_ENT + '
AND [FIPCNTY_ENT] = ' + #FIPCNTY_ENT + '
AND [SIC_ENT] = ' + #SIC2_ENT + '
AND [FMSZ_ENT] = ' + #FMSZENT_ENT + '
AND [ESTABLISHMENTS_AVAILABLE_FMSZEST <= ' + #MAXIMUM_FMSZEST + '] > 0)'
EXEC(#SQLSTATEMENT)
But I still ran into an error (this time different):
Msg 102, level 15, state 1, line 9
Incorrect syntax near ')'
I declared the following variables earlier in the procedure with their respective data types/lengths seen next to them:
#FIPST_ENT CHAR(2)
#FIPCNTY_ENT CHAR(3)
#SIC2_ENT CHAR(2)
#FMSZENT_ENT CHAR(1)
#MAXIMUM_FMSZENT CHAR(1)
#SQLSTATEMENT VARCHAR(MAX)
Before this dynamic SQL statement was reached in the stored procedure, the temporary table #MAX_STORAGE was already created and contains only one column of datatype int.
Am I missing something I'm doing wrong? Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks.

Answer 1

At bare minimum, you need to enclose string fields in escaped-single-quotes within the Dynamic SQL. The adaptation I show below is based on this comment on the Question:
FIPST_ENT is numeric in nature (i.e. 01-50) but cast as a character. Likewise with the other FIPCNTY_ENT and SIC2_ENT. FMSZENT is cast as a character but is sometimes numeric (i.e. 1-9) and other times non-numeric (i.e. A-C).
So it seems that only FMSZENT needs the escaped-single-quotes.
Also, using a derived query requires an alias. So whatever the initial problem was, you then introduced a new parse error by removing the alias ;-).
SET #SQLSTATEMENT =
'INSERT INTO #MAX_STORAGE
SELECT MAX(tmp.[ROW]) FROM
(SELECT * FROM [DATABASE].[dbo].[Refined_Est_Probability_09_MODIFIED]
WHERE [FIPST_ENT] = '+#FIPST_ENT+'
AND [FIPCNTY_ENT] = '+#FIPCNTY_ENT+'
AND [SIC_ENT] = '+#SIC2_ENT+'
AND [FMSZ_ENT] = '''+#FMSZENT_ENT+'''
AND [ESTABLISHMENTS_AVAILABLE_FMSZEST<='+#MAXIMUM_FMSZEST+'] > 0) tmp;'
Now, when it comes to debugging Dynamic SQL, the first step should be looking at what SQL you actually constructed, as it might not be what you think it should be:
PRINT #SQLSTATEMENT;