Thanks for the answer, it makes sense.

I need to use it to pass the result into a variable.

;WITH CTE_Test (ID)

AS

(

SELECT CAST(id AS VARCHAR(60)) FROM cat_transaction

EXCEPT

SELECT ext_reference FROM Patricia.dbo.BUDGET_LINE

)

;

SET @Total = (

Select

COUNT(ID)

FROM

CTE_Test

)

Is this possible at all?