IMHO (10/2/2014)

---

I know this post is old but I had the same problem and thought I'd share the solution I found.

When you compile the VB assembly in VS, pay attention to the Project Properties. Under the Application tab there is a "Root namespace" textbox. This has to be part of the EXTERNAL NAME syntax when creating the function in T-SQL. I thought that, since I didn't have a namespace in my code, I didn't need to use it in my CREATE FUNCTION code but I kept getting the "Could not find type'xxx' in assembly 'xxx' error until I added it.

-----------------------

INCORRECT:

-----------------------

CREATE FUNCTION dbo.RegExIsMatch

(

@pattern NVARCHAR(4000),

@input NVARCHAR(MAX),

@Options int

)

RETURNS BIT

AS EXTERNAL NAME

RegEx.[RegexFunctions].RegExIsMatch

GO

-----------------------

CORRECT: (Note the syntax must include the "hidden" namespace -- Assembly_Name.[Namespace.Class_Name].Function Name)

-----------------------

CREATE FUNCTION dbo.RegExIsMatch

(

@pattern NVARCHAR(4000),

@input NVARCHAR(MAX),

@Options int

)

RETURNS BIT

AS EXTERNAL NAME

RegEx.[Regex.RegexFunctions].RegExIsMatch

GO