Use result of Case statement in another Case statement

Question

I have quite a long SELECT query but I have pasted the relevant part here.

I need to use the result of the of my CASE statement to use in another CASE statement. I'm doing this in SQL Server.

Would be very grateful for help.

SELECT
    CompanyContact.Name AS CompanyName,
    CASE 
       WHEN SUBSTRING(HeadLease.TenantBreakNotice, LEN(HeadLease.TenantBreakNotice), 1) = 'M'
          THEN CONVERT(VARCHAR(10), DATEADD(DD, -365 / (12 / SUBSTRING(HeadLease.TenantBreakNotice, 1, LEN(HeadLease.TenantBreakNotice) - 1)), HeadLease.TenantBreakDate), 103)
       WHEN SUBSTRING(HeadLease.TenantBreakNotice, LEN(HeadLease.TenantBreakNotice), 1) = 'Y'
          THEN CONVERT(VARCHAR(10), DATEADD(DD, -365 * (SUBSTRING(HeadLease.TenantBreakNotice, 1, LEN(HeadLease.TenantBreakNotice) - 1)), HeadLease.TenantBreakDate), 103)
       ELSE HeadLease.TenantBreakNotice
    END AS [TenantBreakNotice],  <-- I need this to be used in the case statement below.
    CASE
       WHEN [TenantBreakNotice] < CONVERT(varchar(10), getdate(), 103)  
          THEN 'Expiry' 
       WHEN [TenantBreakNotice] IS NULL 
          THEN 'Expiry' 
       ELSE 'Break' 
    END AS [LeaseEventType]
FROM 
    HeadLease  

Answer 1

You cannot use a column alias in the same select where it is defined. The usual solution is to repeat the logic (hard to maintain), use a subquery, or CTE. SQL Server offers another elegant solution:

SELECT hl.Name AS CompanyName, v.TenantBreakNotice,
       (CASE WHEN v.TenantBreakNotice < CONVERT(varchar(10), getdate(), 103)  THEN 'Expiry' 
             WHEN TenantBreakNotice IS NULL THEN 'Expiry' 
             ELSE 'Break' 
        END) AS [LeaseEventType]

FROM HeadLease hl OUTER APPLY
     (VALUES (CASE WHEN SUBSTRING(hl.TenantBreakNotice, LEN(hl.TenantBreakNotice), 1) = 'M'
                   THEN CONVERT(VARCHAR(10), DATEADD(DAY, -365/(12/SUBSTRING(hl.TenantBreakNotice, 1, LEN(hl.TenantBreakNotice) -1)), hl.TenantBreakDate), 103)
                   WHEN SUBSTRING(hl.TenantBreakNotice, LEN(hl.TenantBreakNotice), 1) = 'Y'
                   THEN CONVERT(VARCHAR(10), DATEADD(DAY, -365*(SUBSTRING(hl.TenantBreakNotice,1, LEN(hl.TenantBreakNotice)-1)), hl.TenantBreakDate), 103)
                   ELSE hl.TenantBreakNotice
              END) v(TenantBreakNotice);

Of course, the logic is incorrect, because you are comparing dates as strings. However, that is something you need to figure out yourself. Don't convert dates to strings for date operations. And, you should output the results as YYYY-MM-DD so the formats are unambiguous.