FIX: Select Query with GROUP BY and Outer Join Causes Handled Access Violation (235693)

SYMPTOMS

A handled access violation (AV) exception error occurs within a SELECT statement under the following conditions:

There is an outer join and the outer table has a nonclustered unique index on the column in the JOIN condition.
The SELECT statement contains a GROUP BY clause with two or more columns.
A number of the columns from both tables are used in the search conditions of the WHERE clause.
The execution plan does not cause a sort or ORDER BY.

The following is the short stack trace for the exception:

Short Stack Dump
0x006bdcab Module(sqlservr+2bdcab) (SDES::RepositionScan+39)
0x005911db Module(sqlservr+1911db) (RowsetSS::ReaquireLatchLong+b4)
0x00421775 Module(sqlservr+21775) (RowsetSS::GetData+42)
0x004ac022 Module(sqlservr+ac022) (CValSSTable::GetDataX+1c)
0x00630cc8 Module(sqlservr+230cc8) (CEs::FastCompare+7e)
0x00426876 Module(sqlservr+26876) (CDataBuffer::FGetPredicate+3a)
1999-06-23 12:20:31.87 spid9    CImageHelper::GetSym Error - The specified module could not be found.

WORKAROUND

The problem occurs when the execution plan performs a Hash Match without any sorting or ordering. The workaround is to apply either query hints or join hints that will create an execution plan that performs a sort or an order.

Use the 'order group' query hint.

-or-
Use the 'merge', 'loop', or 'hash' join hint.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in SQL Server 7.0. This problem has been corrected in U.S. Service Pack 3 for Microsoft SQL Server 7.0. For more information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

274799 INF: How to Obtain Service Pack 3 for Microsoft SQL Server 7.0 and Microsoft Data Engine (MSDE) 1.0

For more information, contact your primary support provider. Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in SQL Server 2000.