SQL Server query with CASE and GROUP BY, field invalid? - sql

Question

Can't figure out what I'm doing wrong here. It says field HasNoteDate is invalid. I just want it to return 1 if there's a date, 0 if there's not and I wanted it grouped so I can get the counts and the sum of loan amounts. I've looked at the stackoverflow answers for grouping by a case and none of them are solving it for me. Thanks!
SELECT dbo.BDONAMES.UserID, dbo.BRKRMAST.Tier, dbo.BDONAMES.REGION, COUNT(*) AS TierRegionCount,
SUM(dbo.LOAN.LOAN_AMT) AS LoanAmtSum, dbo.LOAN.DEAL_STATUS, CASE WHEN dbo.WORKFLOW.NOTE_DATE IS NULL
THEN 0 ELSE 1 END AS HasNoteDate
FROM dbo.BRKRMAST INNER JOIN
dbo.BRKRREF ON dbo.BRKRMAST.BRKRMASTID = dbo.BRKRREF.BRKRMASTID INNER JOIN
dbo.LOAN ON dbo.BRKRREF.LoanId = dbo.LOAN.LoanId INNER JOIN
dbo.WORKFLOW ON dbo.LOAN.LoanId = dbo.WORKFLOW.LoanId LEFT OUTER JOIN
dbo.BDONAMES ON dbo.BRKRMAST.BDONAMESID = dbo.BDONAMES.BDONAMESID
WHERE (LEN(dbo.BDONAMES.UserID) > 0) AND (dbo.BRKRMAST.Tier > 0) AND (LEN(dbo.BDONAMES.REGION) > 0)
GROUP BY dbo.BDONAMES.UserID, dbo.BRKRMAST.Tier, dbo.BDONAMES.REGION, dbo.LOAN.LOAN_AMT, dbo.LOAN.DEAL_STATUS, HasNoteDate
ORDER BY dbo.BDONAMES.UserID, dbo.BRKRMAST.Tier, dbo.BDONAMES.REGION

Answer 1

logic of SQL query execution is not straightforward as common programming languages
here are sample execution stages for your query:
perform join on tables in FROM CLAUSE
perform GROUP BY - this will cause error, as HasNoteDate is not defined for this moment
perform ORDER BY
perform SELECT - only during this stage column HasNoteDate is defined
so, you cannot use undefined column HasNoteDate in GROUP BY, you have to replace it with your statement (CASE WHEN dbo.WORKFLOW.NOTE_DATE IS NULL THEN 0 ELSE 1 END), then sql server will be able to GROUP

Answer 2

SELECT dbo.BDONAMES.UserID, dbo.BRKRMAST.Tier, dbo.BDONAMES.REGION, COUNT(*) AS TierRegionCount,
SUM(dbo.LOAN.LOAN_AMT) AS LoanAmtSum, dbo.LOAN.DEAL_STATUS, CASE WHEN dbo.WORKFLOW.NOTE_DATE IS NULL
THEN 0 ELSE 1 END AS HasNoteDate
FROM dbo.BRKRMAST INNER JOIN
dbo.BRKRREF ON dbo.BRKRMAST.BRKRMASTID = dbo.BRKRREF.BRKRMASTID INNER JOIN
dbo.LOAN ON dbo.BRKRREF.LoanId = dbo.LOAN.LoanId INNER JOIN
dbo.WORKFLOW ON dbo.LOAN.LoanId = dbo.WORKFLOW.LoanId LEFT OUTER JOIN
dbo.BDONAMES ON dbo.BRKRMAST.BDONAMESID = dbo.BDONAMES.BDONAMESID
WHERE (LEN(dbo.BDONAMES.UserID) > 0) AND (dbo.BRKRMAST.Tier > 0) AND (LEN(dbo.BDONAMES.REGION) > 0)
GROUP BY dbo.BDONAMES.UserID, dbo.BRKRMAST.Tier, dbo.BDONAMES.REGION, dbo.LOAN.DEAL_STATUS, CASE WHEN dbo.WORKFLOW.NOTE_DATE IS NULL
THEN 0 ELSE 1 END
ORDER BY dbo.BDONAMES.UserID, dbo.BRKRMAST.Tier, dbo.BDONAMES.REGION
Use columns in your group by exactly the way you have defined in you select Statement, otherwise SQL server tries to GROUP it with the fields that it cannot find in SELECT statement and throws an error.