Incorrect syntax near 'go' in SQL Server Management Studio

Question

Executing the following SQL:

drop function f
go

in MS Sql Server Management Studio give me this parse error:

Msg 102, Level 15, State 1, Line 1 Incorrect syntax near 'go'.

Why?

If I open a new tab and copy/paste the SQL into it, it also fails. But If I open a new tab and retype the SQL entirely, it works fine.

You presumably have a non visible character in there that messes things up. — Martin Smith
– Martin Smith, Commented Oct 12, 2011 at 9:57
Clearly whatever you were copy-pasting isn't correct - why not copy-paste what you typed in, then you know it'll work? — Widor
– Widor, Commented Oct 12, 2011 at 9:58
possible duplicate of What could cause SSMS to not parse SQL properly? — Martin Smith
– Martin Smith, Commented Oct 12, 2011 at 9:59
yes. I ended up findind the solution myself, but I decided to post it here as I was frustrated that I couldn't find it with a web search. But it will probably remain hard to find, since the problem could happen in different kinds of SQL code. Some queries do work with CR though, I only had the problem on DROP FUNCTION. — Eldritch Conundrum
– Eldritch Conundrum, Commented Oct 12, 2011 at 10:15
@EldritchConundrum - Yes actually a different issue from the one that I thought it would be linked above. — Martin Smith
– Martin Smith, Commented Oct 12, 2011 at 10:28

DavidEG · Accepted Answer · 2011-10-12 10:00:21Z

36

SQL Server Management Studio can't handle some non printable characters.

Check the newline characters, probably you have Linux (LF) or Mac style (CR) instead of Windows style (CR and LF). You can check with any advanced text editor, for example Notepad++·

answered Oct 12, 2011 at 10:00

DavidEG

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1 Comment

gregsonian Over a year ago

The UTF-8 character was never visible using the above techniques. SSMS was showing me with a very tiny red underline where the problems were. I was able to replace this unknown character with an empty string (no value) using Shift-Arrow > Ctrl-C > Ctrl-H > Ctrl-V. The SQL script then ran correctly.

Eldritch Conundrum · Accepted Answer · 2011-10-12 09:59:58Z

7

You opened a file in Mac format, with Carriage Returns ('\r') newlines.

The SQL parser behaves inconsistently on CR newlines. It supports them for some queries, like "select 1 go", but fails on others, like "drop function f go".

Convert all your sql files to windows encoding.

answered Oct 12, 2011 at 9:59

Eldritch Conundrum

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2 Comments

Damien_The_Unbeliever Over a year ago

The SQL (actually, management studio) parser is consistent - in neither case does it interpret the gap before the go as a newline. It's just that, for your select 1 go example, go is a perfectly valid column alias, and the as keyword is not required.

Eldritch Conundrum Over a year ago

I now understand why "select 1 go" work. Since "select 1 from foo f" works and "select 1 from foo f go" fails, the syntax parsing issue is probably specific to the use of GO and the newline after it.

Matrix Gansburg · Accepted Answer · 2014-08-27 21:04:00Z

2

You should remove all the "GO" from the script and it will resolve the issue.

Check this out for more info:

https://agilewebhosting.com/knowledgebase/63/SQL-Error-Incorrect-syntax-near-andsharp039GOandsharp039.html

Matrix

answered Aug 27, 2014 at 21:04

Matrix Gansburg

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2 Comments

andrew pate Over a year ago

This answer may be useful for .NET users running sql scripts with the SqlCommand class. See: stackoverflow.com/questions/18596876/…

Mohd Qasim Over a year ago

for me after GO removing semi-colun(;) works

sympatric greg · Accepted Answer · 2012-10-16 08:21:55Z

1

Been suffering with this problem mightily. Finally, used Notepad++.

Fixed by:

Format>Convert to UNIX

followed by

Format>Convert to Windows

answered Oct 16, 2012 at 8:21

sympatric greg

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Comments

yuvraj · Accepted Answer · 2020-11-18 05:16:01Z

I am too facing the same issue, but not sure about what causes it. When copy paste the in query editor, able to execute it.

Thorough procedure only it failing

Scripts generated from my procedure.

Msg 102, Level 15, State 1, Line 366 Incorrect syntax near 'GO'. Msg 156, Level 15, State 1, Line 370 Incorrect syntax near the keyword 'CREATE'. Msg 102, Level 15, State 1, Line 371 Incorrect syntax near 'GO'.

CREATE TABLE dbo.[SolutionAssessmentBPF] ( businessprocessflowinstanceid uniqueidentifier NOT NULL , StatusReasonCode int NULL , TimeZoneRuleVersionNumber int NULL , TraversedPath nvarchar (1250) NULL , UTCConversionTimeZoneCode int NULL , TenantId int NOT NULL , OdsCreatedDate datetime NOT NULL DEFAULT GETUTCDATE() , OdsModifiedDate datetime NOT NULL DEFAULT GETUTCDATE() , OdsStatus tinyint NULL DEFAULT 0 , VersionNumber bigint DEFAULT -1 , CONSTRAINT [PK_SolutionAssessmentBPF] PRIMARY KEY CLUSTERED ( businessprocessflowinstanceid,TenantId ASC )) GO

CREATE UNIQUE INDEX [UQX_SolutionAssessmentBPF_bpf_incidentid_OdsStatus] ON [dbo].[SolutionAssessmentBPF] ([bpf_incidentid], [OdsStatus]) GO CREATE NONCLUSTERED INDEX [NCI_SolutionAssessmentBPF_OdsModifiedDate] ON [dbo].[SolutionAssessmentBPF] ([OdsModifiedDate]) GO

This issue is got fixed after removing GO statement from dynamic SQL generated. Please remove GO statement and any non printable character which is not compatible with windows format. That should fix this kind of issues.

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Incorrect syntax near 'go' in SQL Server Management Studio

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Scripts generated from my procedure.

CREATE UNIQUE INDEX [UQX_SolutionAssessmentBPF_bpf_incidentid_OdsStatus] ON [dbo].[SolutionAssessmentBPF] ([bpf_incidentid], [OdsStatus]) GO CREATE NONCLUSTERED INDEX [NCI_SolutionAssessmentBPF_OdsModifiedDate] ON [dbo].[SolutionAssessmentBPF] ([OdsModifiedDate]) GO

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5 Answers 5

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Scripts generated from my procedure.

CREATE UNIQUE INDEX [UQX_SolutionAssessmentBPF_bpf_incidentid_OdsStatus] ON [dbo].[SolutionAssessmentBPF] ([bpf_incidentid], [OdsStatus]) GO CREATE NONCLUSTERED INDEX [NCI_SolutionAssessmentBPF_OdsModifiedDate] ON [dbo].[SolutionAssessmentBPF] ([OdsModifiedDate]) GO

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