Invalid Column Name on CONCAT_WS

All we need is an easy explanation of the problem, so here it is.

Sorry if this seems like rambling I’m not typically a DB person just trying to work through an issue.

I have two tables cases and legal_entity the data on the two tables looks like this

legal_entity

cases

What I am trying to do is combine the last_name and first_name fields from the legal_entity table with a comma between them, and match (contains) it against the style field in the cases table. For everything in the last month basically. This is the query I’m using

SELECT
    first_name, last_name, address_1_zip,
    CONCAT_WS(',', last_name,first_name) AS CombinedName
FROM
    CPSQL.dbo.legal_entity AS LE
INNER JOIN CPSQL.dbo.cases as C ON LE.CombinedName=C.style
WHERE C.create_date >= Convert(datetime, '2021-03-01') AND C.create_date <= Convert(datetime, '2021-04-16')
ORDER BY C.create_date

The issue I run into is that it seems to not like the LE.CombinedName so I’m not sure how to reference the concatenated string against the style column in the cases table.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

How to solve :

I know you bored from this bug, So we are here to help you! Take a deep breath and look at the explanation of your problem. We have many solutions to this problem, But we recommend you to use the first method because it is tested & true method that will 100% work for you.

Method 1

You can use only columns from the joined tables or in your case concatenated version of it

SELECT
    first_name, last_name, address_1_zip,
    CONCAT_WS(',', last_name,first_name) AS CombinedName
FROM
    CPSQL.dbo.legal_entity AS LE
INNER JOIN CPSQL.dbo.cases as C ON CONCAT_WS(', ', LE.last_name,LE.first_name)=C.style
WHERE C.create_date >= Convert(datetime, '2021-03-01') AND C.create_date <= Convert(datetime, '2021-04-16')
ORDER BY C.create_date

CREATE TABLE legal_entity
    ([first_name] varchar(7), [last_name] varchar(7), [address_1_zip] int)
;
    
INSERT INTO legal_entity
    ([first_name], [last_name], [address_1_zip])
VALUES
    ('Maria', 'Munoz', 33122),
    ('John', 'Glenn', 10003),
    ('Melissa', 'Johnson', 90210)
;

CREATE TABLE cases
    ([style] varchar(22), [case_number] varchar(7), [create_date] varchar(23))
;
    
INSERT INTO cases
    ([style], [case_number], [create_date])
VALUES
    ('Munoz, Maria', 'SL12345', '2021-03-01 11:45:26.657'),
    ('Glenn, John', 'SL45678', '2021-03-02 12:10:14.552'),
    ('Johnson, Melissa (DNY)', 'SG42561', '2021-04-10 01:06:10.214')
;

SELECT
    first_name, last_name, address_1_zip,
    CONCAT_WS(',', last_name,first_name) AS CombinedName
FROM
    legal_entity AS LE
INNER JOIN cases as C ON CONCAT_WS(', ', LE.last_name,LE.first_name)=C.style
WHERE C.create_date >= Convert(datetime, '2021-03-01') AND C.create_date <= Convert(datetime, '2021-04-16')
ORDER BY C.create_date
GO

first_name | last_name | address_1_zip | CombinedName
:--------- | :-------- | ------------: | :-----------
Maria      | Munoz     |         33122 | Munoz,Maria 
John       | Glenn     |         10003 | Glenn,John  

db<>fiddle here

CREATE TABLE legal_entity
    ([first_name] varchar(7), [last_name] varchar(7), [address_1_zip] int)
;
    
INSERT INTO legal_entity
    ([first_name], [last_name], [address_1_zip])
VALUES
    ('Maria', 'Munoz', 33122),
    ('John', 'Glenn', 10003),
    ('Melissa', 'Johnson', 90210)
;
GO

CREATE TABLE cases
    ([style] varchar(22), [case_number] varchar(7), [create_date] varchar(23))
;
    
INSERT INTO cases
    ([style], [case_number], [create_date])
VALUES
    ('Munoz, Maria', 'SL12345', '2021-03-01 11:45:26.657'),
    ('Glenn, John', 'SL45678', '2021-03-02 12:10:14.552'),
    ('Johnson, Melissa (DNY)', 'SG42561', '2021-04-10 01:06:10.214')
;
GO

SELECT
    first_name, last_name, address_1_zip,
    CONCAT_WS(',', last_name,first_name) AS CombinedName
FROM
    legal_entity AS LE
INNER JOIN cases as C ON PATINDEX( CONCAT( LE.last_name,', ',LE.first_name,'%'),C.style) > 0
WHERE C.create_date >= Convert(datetime, '2021-03-01') AND C.create_date <= Convert(datetime, '2021-04-16')
ORDER BY C.create_date
GO

first_name | last_name | address_1_zip | CombinedName   
:--------- | :-------- | ------------: | :--------------
Maria      | Munoz     |         33122 | Munoz,Maria    
John       | Glenn     |         10003 | Glenn,John     
Melissa    | Johnson   |         90210 | Johnson,Melissa

db<>fiddle here

Note: Use and implement method 1 because this method fully tested our system.
Thank you 🙂

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