Incorrect syntax near '.' when querying SQL Server from Excel - sql-server

Question

I've successfully connected to our SQL Server from VBscript from an Excel file. I was able to run the following query and return the expected results, but now I'm getting an error:
Incorrect syntax near '.'
The only thing I've changed was adding string breaks, ending the line with a quote, ampersand, space, hyphen to continue the query on the following line.
I've tried all the recommendations I could find on Stack Overflow,e.g. deleting and re-adding white spaces, copy/paste into a notepad to find special characters, re-adding all the '.' and manually adding CR.
Any other thoughts? Should I be using a different syntax to break up my query string?
SELECT
IM_BARCOD.BARCOD, IM_PRC.PRC_1, IM_INV.QTY_AVAIL, IM_ITEM.DESCR,
IM_INV.LOC_ID, IM_INV.ITEM_NO" & _
FROM
BCEXP.dbo.IM_BARCOD
INNER JOIN
BCEXP.dbo.IM_INV ON IM_INV.ITEM_NO = IM_BARCOD.ITEM_NO
INNER JOIN
BCEXP.dbo.IM_PRC ON IM_INV.ITEM_NO = IM_PRC.ITEM_NO
INNER JOIN
BCEXP.dbo.IM_ITEM ON IM_INV.ITEM_NO = IM_ITEM.ITEM_NO" & _
WHERE
(IM_ITEM.TRK_METH = 'N' AND IM_INV.LOC_ID = 'MAIN')" & _
AND(IM_ITEM.ITEM_VEND_NO = 'OSPR' OR IM_ITEM.ITEM_VEND_NO = 'ENZEES'
OR IM_ITEM.ITEM_VEND_NO = 'WM')

Answer 1

As you have noticed, it is difficult to get SQL correct when you're using a string like that. I assume you are using an older version of Visual Studio, so one option to make the SQL more readable is to use an XML literal, like this:
Dim sql = <sql>
SELECT     im_barcod.barcod,
           im_prc.prc_1,
           im_inv.qty_avail,
           im_item.descr,
           im_inv.loc_id,
           im_inv.item_nofrom bcexp.dbo.im_barcod
inner JOIN bcexp.dbo.im_inv
ON         im_inv.item_no=im_barcod.item_no
INNER JOIN bcexp.dbo.im_prc
ON         im_inv.item_no=im_prc.item_no
INNER JOIN bcexp.dbo.im_item
ON         im_inv.item_no=im_item.item_nowhere(im_item.trk_meth='N'
AND        im_inv.loc_id='MAIN')
AND       (
                      im_item.item_vend_no='OSPR'
           OR         im_item.item_vend_no='ENZEES'
           OR         im_item.item_vend_no='WM')
</sql>.Value()
The name of the tag <sql> is not important. Your indentation may vary from that shown - I used an online SQL formatter (Instant SQL Formatter this time).
Now you can see that it all goes horribly wrong around
im_inv.item_no=im_item.item_nowhere(im_item.trk_meth='N'
because there is a space missing after "item_no".