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.

Solution 1

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++·

Solution 2

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.

Solution 3

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

Fixed by:

Format>Convert to UNIX

followed by

Format>Convert to Windows

Solution 4

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

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Comments

[Damien_The_Unbeliever]

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]

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.

[andrew pate]

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

[gregsonian]

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.