BUG: SELECT Statements With UNION May Cause Error 8618

ID: Q225141

The information in this article applies to:
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:

  1. Create a stored procedure that takes each SELECT statement in the UNION and inserts the results into a temporary table.


  2. 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 version 7.0.

Additional query words: 


Keywords          : kbSQLServ700 kbSQLServ700bug 
Version           : winnt:7.0
Platform          : winnt 
Issue type        : kbbug

Last Reviewed: April 27, 1999