Tom.Thomson (4/7/2010)
The intersting reult here is that the MS reply recognises that the optimiser should recognise that the duplicated expression is just that, and evaluate it only once. So maybe it will get fixed sometime.
I think it is important to say that this only applies to the specific expansion of COALESCE.
I hope it does get fixed, but I don't expect for one moment that they will change the way COALESCE is implemented (with CASE). Will be an interesting one to watch.
It would be good if that were to happen for case statements too, but given that the ANSI definition syas the simple version is a shorthand for the version duplicating the expression I guess it won't. The workaround in the reply works for case too, of course.
I agree - they won't change the ANSI-esque expansion.
Paul White
SQLPerformance.com
SQLkiwi blog
@SQL_Kiwi