The text, ntext, and image data types cannot be compared or sorted, except when using IS NULL or LIKE operator.

Error Message:
Msg 306, Level 16, State 2, Line 2
The text, ntext, and image data types cannot be compared or sorted, except when using IS NULL or LIKE operator.

Severity level:
16.

Description:
This error message appears when you try to group by a column of the data type TEXT, NTEXT, or IMAGE.

Consequences:
The T-SQL statement can be parsed, but causes the error at runtime.

Resolution:
Error of the Severity Level 16 are generated by the user and can be fixed by the SQL Server user. You cannot use a BLOB column in a GROUP BY clause.

Versions:
All versions of SQL Server.

Example(s):
USE tempdb;
GO
IF OBJECT_ID(‘tempdb..#t’) > 0
 DROP TABLE #t
GO
CREATE TABLE #t
(
 c1 TEXT
);
GO
INSERT INTO #t SELECT ‘1’;
SELECT MIN(c1)
  FROM dbo.#t
 GROUP BY c1

Remarks:
In the above example we try to group by the c1 column. Because this is a column of a BLOB  data type, the error is raised.

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