SQL Server Subquery returned more than 1 value. Th

Question

I run the following query:

SELECT 
   orderdetails.sku,
   orderdetails.mf_item_number,
   orderdetails.qty,
   orderdetails.price,
   supplier.supplierid,
   supplier.suppliername,
   supplier.dropshipfees,
   cost = (SELECT supplier_item.price
           FROM   supplier_item,
                  orderdetails,
                  supplier
           WHERE  supplier_item.sku = orderdetails.sku
                  AND supplier_item.supplierid = supplier.supplierid)
FROM   orderdetails,
       supplier,
       group_master
WHERE  invoiceid = '339740'
       AND orderdetails.mfr_id = supplier.supplierid
       AND group_master.sku = orderdetails.sku  

I get the following error:

Msg 512, Level 16, State 1, Line 2 Subquery returned more than 1 value. This is not permitted when the subquery follows =, !=, <, <= , >, >= or when the subquery is used as an expression.

Any ideas?

Answer 1

Either your data is bad, or it's not structured the way you think it is. Possibly both.

To prove/disprove this hypothesis, run this query:

SELECT * from
(
    SELECT count(*) as c, Supplier_Item.SKU
    FROM Supplier_Item
    INNER JOIN orderdetails
        ON Supplier_Item.sku = orderdetails.sku
    INNER JOIN Supplier
        ON Supplier_item.supplierID = Supplier.SupplierID
    GROUP BY Supplier_Item.SKU
) x
WHERE c > 1
ORDER BY c DESC

If this returns just a few rows, then your data is bad. If it returns lots of rows, then your data is not structured the way you think it is. (If it returns zero rows, I'm wrong.)

I'm guessing that you have orders containing the same SKU multiple times (two separate line items, both ordering the same SKU).

Answer 2

select column 
from table 
where columns_name 
  in ( select column from table where columns_name = 'value');

note: when we are using sub-query we must focus to point

1. if our sub query return one value in this case we are use (=,!=,<>,<,>....)
2. else(more than one values ) in this case we are use (in,any,all,some )

Answer 3

The fix is to stop using correlated subqueries and use joins instead. Correlated subqueries are essentially cursors as they cause the query to run row-by-row and should be avoided.

You may need a derived table in the join in order to get the value you want in the field if you want only one record to match, if you need both values then the ordinary join will do that but you will get multiple records for the same id in the results set. If you only want one, you need to decide which one and do that in the code, you could use a top 1 with an order by, you could use max(), you could use min(), etc, depending on what your real requirement for the data is.

Answer 4

The select statement in the cost part of your select is returning more than one value. You need to add more where clauses, or use an aggregation.

Answer 5

I had the same problem , I used in instead of = , from the Northwind database example :

Query is : Find the Companies that placed orders in 1997

Try this :

select CompanyName
from Customers
where CustomerID in (

            select  CustomerID 
            from Orders 
            where year(OrderDate) = '1997');

Instead of that :

select CompanyName
from Customers
where CustomerID = (

            select  CustomerID 
            from Orders 
            where year(OrderDate) = '1997');

Answer 6

As others have suggested, the best way to do this is to use a join instead of variable assignment. Re-writing your query to use a join (and using the explicit join syntax instead of the implicit join, which was also suggested--and is the best practice), you would get something like this:

select  
  OrderDetails.Sku,
  OrderDetails.mf_item_number,
  OrderDetails.Qty,
  OrderDetails.Price,
  Supplier.SupplierId, 
  Supplier.SupplierName,
  Supplier.DropShipFees, 
  Supplier_Item.Price as cost
from 
  OrderDetails
join Supplier on OrderDetails.Mfr_ID = Supplier.SupplierId
join Group_Master on Group_Master.Sku = OrderDetails.Sku 
join Supplier_Item on 
  Supplier_Item.SKU=OrderDetails.Sku and Supplier_Item.SupplierId=Supplier.SupplierID 
where 
  invoiceid='339740'