3289
MySQLERRORNotableCTEsHIGH confidence
Recursive CTE self-reference must be leftmost in JOIN
Production Risk
Low — query is rejected; reorder JOIN tables.
How to reproduce
trigger — this will error
trigger — this will error
WITH RECURSIVE cte AS (SELECT 1 AS n UNION ALL SELECT n+1 FROM other_table JOIN cte WHERE n < 5) SELECT * FROM cte;
expected output
ERROR 3289 (HY000): Recursive CTE 'cte' self-reference must be leftmost table.
Fix
Put CTE reference leftmost
Put CTE reference leftmost
WITH RECURSIVE cte AS (SELECT 1 AS n UNION ALL SELECT n+1 FROM cte JOIN other_table WHERE n < 5) SELECT * FROM cte;
Why this works
The recursive self-reference must be the leading table in the FROM/JOIN clause.
What not to do
✕
Sources
Official documentation ↗
MySQL 8.0 — 3289 ER_CTE_RECURSIVE_FORBIDDEN_JOIN_ORDER
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