IsNumeric failing with "A severe error occurred on the current command." SQL Server 2014 CTE

Question

I'm running a series of scripts which generate a database. They run to completion on SQL Server 2012 (11.0.5058.0). On SQL Server 2014 (12.0.4213.0) a script errors with:

Msg 0, Level 11, State 0, Line 0
A severe error occurred on the current command. The results, if any, should be discarded.

Msg 0, Level 20, State 0, Line 0
A severe error occurred on the current command. The results, if any, should be discarded.

It appears that using the results of an IsNumeric statement inside a CTE query breaks query building, because no rows are required to cause the error. A boiled down version of the case I ran into is:

CREATE TABLE #Temp1 ( CTECol VARCHAR );
CREATE TABLE #Temp2 ( NumCol Int null);
;
WITH cte AS 
(
    SELECT 
        CASE WHEN ISNUMERIC(t.CTECol) = 1 
                THEN 1 
                ELSE null
        END as IsNCol1
    FROM
        #Temp1 t
)
SELECT * 
FROM #Temp2 
JOIN cte ON #Temp2.NumCol = cte.IsNCol1

The simplest case I can find is:

CREATE TABLE #Temp3 ( CTECol Int );
CREATE TABLE #Temp4 ( NumCol Int );
;
WITH cte AS 
(
    SELECT ISNUMERIC(t.CTECol) as IsNCol1
    FROM #Temp3 t
)
SELECT * 
FROM #Temp4 
JOIN cte ON #Temp4.NumCol = cte.IsNCol1

I checked the error levels from Microsoft and it looks like 11 is correctable user error and 20 is fatal error so I feel like I'm getting a mixed message.

Is there a correct way to do this or is it a regression in 2014?

Answer 1

This is certainly a bug.

There is no need for the CTE to produce this behaviour either. The below using the expression directly has the same effect.

SELECT *
FROM   #Temp4
       JOIN #Temp3
         ON #Temp4.NumCol = ISNUMERIC(#Temp3.CTECol) 

I could repro on 12.0.2269.0 and 12.0.4213.0 but not 12.0.4449.0 so it looks like it is now fixed.

The relevant KB article with details is (FIX: Access violation when a query uses ISDATE or ISNUMERIC functions in Join conditions in SQL Server 2014 SP1).

The stack trace when the exception was thrown is below (for searchability)

KernelBase.dll!RaiseException()
msvcr100.dll!_CxxThrowException(void * pExceptionObject, const _s__ThrowInfo * pThrowInfo) Line 157
sqldk.dll!ExceptionBackout::GetCurrentException(void)
sqldk.dll!ex_raise2(int,int,int,int,void *,char *)
sqldk.dll!ex_raise_va_list(int,int,int,int,char *)
sqllang.dll!alg_ex_raise(int,int,int,int,int,...)
sqllang.dll!CAlgTableMetadata::RaiseBadTableException(int,int)
sqllang.dll!CAlgTableMetadata::Bind(class CRelOp_Query *,class COptExpr *)
sqllang.dll!CRelOp_Get::BindTree(class COptExpr *,class CBindEnv *,int)
sqllang.dll!COptExpr::BindTree(class CBindEnv *,int)
sqllang.dll!CRelOp_FromList::BindTree(class COptExpr *,class CBindEnv *,int)
sqllang.dll!COptExpr::BindTree(class CBindEnv *,int)
sqllang.dll!CRelOp_QuerySpec::BindTree(class COptExpr *,class CBindEnv *,int)
sqllang.dll!COptExpr::BindTree(class CBindEnv *,int)
sqllang.dll!CRelOp_DerivedTable::BindTree(class COptExpr *,class CBindEnv *,int)
sqllang.dll!COptExpr::BindTree(class CBindEnv *,int)
sqllang.dll!CRelOp_Query::BindCTEList(class CBindEnv *,class COptExpr *)
sqllang.dll!CRelOp_SelectQuery::BindTree(class COptExpr *,class CBindEnv *,int)
sqllang.dll!COptExpr::BindTree(class CBindEnv *,int)
sqllang.dll!CRelOp_Query::FAlgebrizeQuery(class COptExpr *,class CCompExecCtxtStmt const &,enum EObjType,class CSequenceProjectContext *)
sqllang.dll!CProchdr::FNormQuery(class CCompExecCtxtStmt const &,class CAlgStmt *,enum EObjType)
sqllang.dll!CProchdr::FNormalizeStep(class CCompExecCtxtStmt const &,class CAlgStmt *,class CCompPlan *,bool,class CParamExchange *,unsigned long *)
sqllang.dll!CSQLSource::FCompile(class CCompExecCtxt const &,class CParamExchange *)
sqllang.dll!CSQLSource::FCompWrapper(class CCompExecCtxt const &,class CParamExchange *,enum CSQLSource::ESqlFunction)
sqllang.dll!CSQLSource::Transform(class CCompExecCtxt const &,class CParamExchange *,enum CSQLSource::ESqlState)
sqllang.dll!CSQLSource::Execute(class CCompExecCtxtBasic const &,class CParamExchange *,unsigned long)
sqllang.dll!process_request(class IBatch *,class SNI_Conn *,enum RequestType)
sqllang.dll!process_commands(void *)
sqldk.dll!SOS_Task::Param::Execute(class SOS_Task *,void * * const)
sqldk.dll!SOS_Scheduler::RunTask(class Worker *)
sqldk.dll!SOS_Scheduler::ProcessTasks(class SOS_Scheduler *,class Worker *)
sqldk.dll!SchedulerManager::WorkerEntryPoint(class Worker *)
sqldk.dll!SystemThread::RunWorker(class Worker *)
sqldk.dll!SystemThreadDispatcher::ProcessWorker(class SystemThread *)
sqldk.dll!SchedulerManager::ThreadEntryPoint(void *)
kernel32.dll!BaseThreadInitThunk()
ntdll.dll!RtlUserThreadStart()