To create an inline table-valued function, you need to use the "RETURNS TABLE" clause in the "CREATE FUNCTION" statement. There should be no function body, except for a RETURN statement with a SELECT subquery:

An inline table-valued function can be viewed as a select statement with parameters, see the example showing in this tutorial exercise:

USE GlobalGuideLineDatabase;

GO

CREATE FUNCTION Top_Links(@level INT)

RETURNS TABLE

AS

RETURN (SELECT * FROM ggl_links WHERE counts > @level);

GO

SELECT counts, id, url FROM Top_Links(999900) ORDER BY counts DESC;

GO

counts id  url

----------- ----------- -----------------------------------

999966 36470  dgqnv qd toqcoupuxortasdtzvc

999953 12292  qebmw ywe q kza wskxqns j

999943 6192  p o qi akk hk od 

999923 79161  kv g g

999920 19124  p zoio

999909 90930  xq x y r 

(6 row(s) affected)