Can you create nested WITH clauses for Common Table Expressions?

Question

WITH y AS (
    WITH x AS (
        SELECT * FROM MyTable
    )
    SELECT * FROM x
)
SELECT * FROM y

Does something like this work? I tried it ear

Answer 1

These answers are pretty good, but as far as getting the items to order properly, you'd be better off looking at this article http://dataeducation.com/dr-output-or-how-i-learned-to-stop-worrying-and-love-the-merge

Here's an example of his query.

WITH paths AS ( 
    SELECT 
        EmployeeID, 
        CONVERT(VARCHAR(900), CONCAT('.', EmployeeID, '.')) AS FullPath 
    FROM EmployeeHierarchyWide 
    WHERE ManagerID IS NULL

    UNION ALL

    SELECT 
        ehw.EmployeeID, 
        CONVERT(VARCHAR(900), CONCAT(p.FullPath, ehw.EmployeeID, '.')) AS FullPath 
    FROM paths AS p 
        JOIN EmployeeHierarchyWide AS ehw ON ehw.ManagerID = p.EmployeeID 
) 
SELECT * FROM paths order by FullPath