PRB: User-Defined Function Call in Four-Part Linked Server Query Fails with Error Message 170 (319138)

SYMPTOMS

If you try to invoke a user-defined function (UDF) through a linked server by using a "four-part naming" convention, you may receive the following error message:

Server: Msg 170, Level 15, State 31, Line 1 Line 2: Incorrect syntax near '('.

CAUSE

User-defined function calls inside a four-part linked server query are not supported in SQL Server 2000. Error message 170 indicates that the syntax of a Transact-SQL statement is incorrect.

WORKAROUND

To work around this problem, use the Openquery function instead of the four-part naming convention. For example, instead of the following query

Select * from Linked_Server.northwind.dbo.square_value(10)

run a query with the Openquery function:

Select * from Openquery(Linked_Server,'select northwind.dbo.square_ value(10)')

If the user-defined function takes variable or scalar parameters, you can use the sp_executesql stored procedure to avoid this behavior. For example:

exec Linked_Server.northwind.dbo.sp_executesql N'SELECT northwind.dbo.square_value(@input)',N'@input int',@input=10

REFERENCES

SQL Server 2000 Books Online; topic: "Openquery"