'CREATE VIEW' must be the first statement in a query batch

Question

Basically its what the title says. This is my code.

USE Assignment2;
GO

/* Player View (2 marks)
    Create a view which shows the following details of all players:
        • The ID number of the player
        • The first name and surname of the player concatenated and given an alias of “full_name”
        • The team ID number of the player (if applicable)
        • The team name of the player (if applicable)
        • The coach ID number of the player (if applicable)
        • The name of the player’s coach (if applicable)

   Creating this view requires a select statement using multiple joins and concatenation of names.  
   Make sure that you use the appropriate type of join to ensure that players without teams or coaches are still included in the results.

*/


-- Write your Player View here
PRINT 'Creating Player View'

CREATE VIEW playerView AS 
SELECT player.id, player.firstName + ' ' + player.surname AS 'Full name', player.team, team.name, player.coach, coach.firstName, coach.surname 
FROM player
LEFT OUTER JOIN team
    ON player.team = team.id
    LEFT OUTER JOIN player as coach
        ON player.coach = coach.id;



GO
/* Race View (3 marks)
   Create a view which shows the following details of all races:
        • All of the columns in the race table
        • The name of the race type, course and team involved in the race
        • The full name of the player observing the race and the full name of the MVP (if applicable)
        • A calculated column with an alias of “unpenalised_score”, which adds the points penalised to the final score

   Creating this view requires a select statement using multiple joins and concatenation of names.  
   Make sure that you use the appropriate type of join to ensure that races without MVPs are still included in the results.
*/

-- Write your Race View here
PRINT 'Creating Race View'

CREATE VIEW raceView AS 
SELECT race.id, race.dateOfRace, race.raceType, raceType.name AS raceTypeName, race.course, course.name AS courseName, race.team, team.name AS teamName, race.observer, obs.firstName + ' ' + obs.surname AS observer_name, race.mvp, mvp.firstName + ' ' + mvp.surname AS mvp_name, race.pointsPenalised, race.finalScore + race.pointsPenalised AS unpenalised_score, race.finalScore
FROM race
INNER JOIN raceType
    ON race.raceType = raceType.id
    INNER JOIN course
        ON race.course = course.id
        INNER JOIN team
            ON race.team = team.id
            LEFT OUTER JOIN player AS mvp
                ON race.mvp = mvp.id
                LEFT OUTER JOIN player AS obs
                    ON race.observer = obs.id;
GO 

SELECT * 
FROM playerView

SELECT *
FROM raceView


/* Additional Information:
   The views are very convenient replacements for the tables they represent, as they include the names and calculated values that you will often need in queries.
   You are very much encouraged to use the views to simplify the queries that follow.  You can use a view in a SELECT statement in exactly the same way as you can use a table.

   If you wish to create additional views to simplify the queries which follow, include them in this file.
*/

When I run each CREATE VIEW separately, it seems to run it correctly with no errors. But when I try to run the entire script, it gives me this error.

Msg 111, Level 15, State 1, Line 20
'CREATE VIEW' must be the first statement in a query batch.
Msg 111, Level 15, State 1, Line 15
'CREATE VIEW' must be the first statement in a query batch.
Msg 208, Level 16, State 1, Line 2
Invalid object name 'playerView'.

Before attempting to run this script, I first delete database, recreate the tables, populate them and then run this script.

Any ideas where I'm going wrong?

Answer 1

You may also run into this issue if trying to execute scripts from Entity Framework migrations. I think this is due to EF running those scripts in a transaction (as mentioned in another answer to this question). You can get round that with this type of syntax:

IF NOT EXISTS (SELECT * FROM sys.views WHERE object_id = OBJECT_ID(N'[dbo].[V_MovieActors]'))
EXEC dbo.sp_executesql @statement = N'CREATE VIEW [dbo].[V_MovieActors]
AS
SELECT       NEWID() AS Id, dbo.Movie.Title, dbo.Movie.ReleaseDate, dbo.Actor.FirstName + '' '' + dbo.Actor.LastName AS Actor, dbo.Actor.DateOfBirth
FROM            dbo.Actor INNER JOIN
                         dbo.Movie ON dbo.Actor.Id = dbo.Movie.Actor_Id
'

Which turns the whole thing into a single command for SQL to execute. That approach comes from this very useful article Using SQL Views With Entity Framework Code First by Morgan Kamoga.

Answer 2

This usually happens because being able to create a VIEW or any DBO, you require the entire script to be inside a TRANSACTION or you need to turn on SET QUOTED_IDENTIFIER.

ie

USE [yourdatabase]
GO

SET NUMERIC_ROUNDABORT, IMPLICIT_TRANSACTIONS OFF
SET ANSI_PADDING, ANSI_NULLS, QUOTED_IDENTIFIER, ANSI_WARNINGS, CONCAT_NULL_YIELDS_NULL, ARITHABORT, XACT_ABORT ON
SET TRANSACTION ISOLATION LEVEL SERIALIZABLE
GO

BEGIN TRANSACTION
GO

SET ANSI_NULLS ON
SET QUOTED_IDENTIFIER ON

...
...

-- Write your Race View here
PRINT 'Creating Race View'
GO

CREATE VIEW raceView AS 
SELECT race.id, race.dateOfRace, race.raceType, raceType.name AS raceTypeName, race.course, course.name AS courseName, race.team, team.name AS teamName, race.observer, obs.firstName + ' ' + obs.surname AS observer_name, race.mvp, mvp.firstName + ' ' + mvp.surname AS mvp_name, race.pointsPenalised, race.finalScore + race.pointsPenalised AS unpenalised_score, race.finalScore
FROM race
INNER JOIN raceType
    ON race.raceType = raceType.id
    INNER JOIN course
        ON race.course = course.id
        INNER JOIN team
            ON race.team = team.id
            LEFT OUTER JOIN player AS mvp
                ON race.mvp = mvp.id
                LEFT OUTER JOIN player AS obs
                    ON race.observer = obs.id;
GO 

IF @@ERROR <> 0 BEGIN IF @@TRANCOUNT > 0 ROLLBACK SET NOEXEC ON END
GO

IF @@TRANCOUNT>0 COMMIT TRANSACTION
GO

SET NOEXEC OFF

Answer 3

Put the CREATE VIEW Code inside EXECUTE

SOME CONDITION..

EXECUTE('CREATE  VIEW vwName...')

Answer 4

Batches are delimited by the word GO - which is an instruction to client tools, not to SQL Server, specifically telling those tools how to split your query into batches.

The error tells you that CREATE VIEW must be the first statement in a batch:

USE Assignment2;
GO

/* Player View (2 marks)
    Create a view which shows the following details of all players:
        • The ID number of the player
        • The first name and surname of the player concatenated and given an alias of “full_name”
        • The team ID number of the player (if applicable)
        • The team name of the player (if applicable)
        • The coach ID number of the player (if applicable)
        • The name of the player’s coach (if applicable)

   Creating this view requires a select statement using multiple joins and concatenation of names.  
   Make sure that you use the appropriate type of join to ensure that players without teams or coaches are still included in the results.

*/


-- Write your Player View here
PRINT 'Creating Player View'

GO -->-- New GO here

CREATE VIEW playerView AS 

So I've added a GO before CREATE VIEW

Answer 5

put GO after PRINT 'Creating Player View' and it should work:

PRINT 'Creating Player View'
GO

CREATE VIEW playerView AS