error_number() won't return error code

hi all,

i have sql statement in ExecuteSQLTask, connecting to AdventureWorks

BEGIN TRY
insert into person.contacts(contactid) values (1);
END TRY
BEGIN CATCH
SELECT ERROR_NUMBER() AS ErrorNumber;
END CATCH;

i purposely put a table that does not exist in the database to catch
the error. however, the error number that is 208 won't appear, instead
the whole error message will be displayed.

if i change the query in try block to
insert into person.contact(contactid) values (1);

it'll return the error number 544, which is correct.

what did i do wrong?
thanks!

You did nothing wrong.

Try/Catch doesn't catch all errors, specifically compile time errors (there are a few others). Try running the following, "more obvious" compile time error. This compile time error won't be caught either, since the execution of the statements never happens.

BEGIN TRY

PRINT 'Inside Try-Block'

'This is not sql'

END TRY

BEGIN CATCH

SELECT error_number() as 'Error In Try Block'

END CATCH

|||

thanks jaegd for your reply.. it didn't say in BOL that try/catch doesn't catch all errors or maybe i left that out.

anyhow, my problem is not solved. is there an alternative where i can catch any errors that occur?

|||See the following BOL reference for the constructs which Try/Catch does not trap.
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms175976.aspx

However, To catch almost every error (including compile time and deferred name resolution errors), you can use dynamic SQL in combination with sp_executesql.

BEGIN TRY
DECLARE @.not_sql NVARCHAR(100)
SET @.not_sql = 'This is not sql'
EXEC sp_executesql @.not_sql

END TRY
BEGIN CATCH
SELECT ERROR_NUMBER() AS ErrorNumber
END CATCH

Note that almost every error is caught with this method, because broken client connections are not

trapped, hopefully for relatively obvious reasons (you have no

connection).|||thanks a lot jaegd

Error: The MDX function ROOT failed because...

I'm having problem calculating sales for all customer minus certain occupations.

This Adventureworks query is something like what Excel 2003 produces.

Code Snippet

WITH MEMBER [Customer].[Occupation].[Exclude Occupations] AS

'AGGREGATE({

[Customer].[Occupation].&[Clerical],

[Customer].[Occupation].&[Management]

})'

MEMBER Measures.[Other Occupation Sales] as (ROOT(Customer), [Measures].[Internet Sales Amount]) - [Measures].[Internet Sales Amount]

SELECT

{Measures.[Other Occupation Sales]} ON COLUMNS,

[Product].[Category].[Category].MEMBERS ON ROWS

FROM [Adventure Works]

WHERE

([Customer].[Occupation].[Exclude Occupations])

Error: The MDX function ROOT failed because the coordinate for the 'Occupation' attribute contains a set.

If you delete this line, the query works!

[Customer].[Occupation].&[Clerical],

Does anyone know what this means? Is there another way to get Excel to formulate an equivalent query?

The problem is because there is a set in the current coordinate, and Root has problem dealing with it (although it shouldn't!). The best solution is to replace Root(Customer) with [All Customers] - which will have exactly same functionality, better performance, and won't generate the error that started this thread.|||

Yes, I replaced Root(Customer) with [Customer].[Occupation].[All Customers] and it works. The problem is that I wanted to create a general purpose calculated measure that would override every attribute in the customer dimension with "All". I thought Root did precisely that. If I can't use Root() then I will need to remember to update this calculation every time an attribute is added or removed from the customer dimension.

Thanks for the input.

|||

> The problem is that I wanted to create a general purpose calculated measure that would override every attribute in the customer dimension with "All"

[All Customers] does exactly that ! There is no need to update your calculation every time new attribute is added, [All Customers] (in any hierarchy of customers dimension) will automatically move coordinate to All member in every attribute.

|||

Try my AdventureWorks repro with [All Customers] instead of Root(). It doesn't work. It doesn't replace the aggregate set of occupations with the All tuple. I end up with zeros in the results because [All Customers] is doing absolutely nothing for me.

The only way I got it to work was with [Customer].[Occupation].[All Customers]. This member does, in fact, replace my aggregate set of occupations.

Put that in your pipe and smoke it!

I'm curious how [All Customers] is defined to work (vs. Root()).

|||Of course - you are right. I don't know what I was thinking. What I said is only true when dimension has single hierarchy which includes all attributes, which is obviously not the case for most of the dimensions, especially Customer.|||Thanks for the help. At least I have a work-around for now. It would be nice if Root(dimension) did the same thing as change coordinates to [All Customers] on every attribute. Maybe in the next version...