FIX: SELECT Statements With UNION May Cause Error 8618 (225141)

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft SQL Server 7.0

This article was previously published under Q225141

BUG #: 55031 (SQLBUG_70)

SYMPTOMS

When executing two SELECT statements, joined by a UNION clause, you may get error 8618:

The query processor could not produce a query plan from the optimizer because the total length of all the columns in the GROUP BY clause exceeds 8000 bytes.

WORKAROUND

Avoid the use of the UNION clause by following these steps:

Create a stored procedure that takes each SELECT statement in the UNION and inserts the results into a temporary table.
Once each insert is complete, execute a SELECT statement from the final temporary table.

You can then call the stored procedure to get the results.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in SQL Server 7.0. This problem has been corrected in U.S. Service Pack 2 for Microsoft SQL Server 7.0. For more information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

254561 INF: How to Obtain Service Pack 2 for Microsoft SQL Server 7.0 and Microsoft Data Engine (MSDE) 1.0

For more information, contact your primary support provider.

Modification Type:	Major	Last Reviewed:	3/14/2006
Keywords:	kbBug kbfix KB225141