How to use CHANGE_TRACKING_CURRENT_VERSION in a user defined function?

Question

I am working on a project that uses Entity Framework and change tracking in SQL Server. I want to create a user defined function that returns the current version of the tracked changes in the database, so that I can use it in my queries with Entity Framework.

However, when I try to create the function, I get the following error:

Invalid use of a side-effecting operator 'change_tracking_current_version' within a function.

Is there a way to create a user defined function with it without causing an error?

Here is the code of my function:

CREATE FUNCTION dbo.GetChangeVersion()
RETURNS bigint
AS
BEGIN
DECLARE @version bigint;
SET @version = CHANGE_TRACKING_CURRENT_VERSION();
RETURN @version;
END

Answer 1

You can use the same workaround as also works for RAND().

Create a helper view

CREATE VIEW dbo.CHANGE_TRACKING_CURRENT_VERSION
AS
SELECT CHANGE_TRACKING_CURRENT_VERSION() AS CurrentVersion

Then use

CREATE FUNCTION dbo.GetChangeVersion()
RETURNS bigint
AS
BEGIN
DECLARE @version bigint;
SET @version = (SELECT CurrentVersion FROM dbo.CHANGE_TRACKING_CURRENT_VERSION)
RETURN @version;
END