sql - Msg 178, Level 15, State 1, Line 8 A RETURN statement with a return value cannot be used in this context -

i received error message while trying execute below sql.

error:

msg 156, level 15, state 1, line 5 incorrect syntax near keyword 'function'. msg 178, level 15, state 1, line 8 return statement return value cannot used in context.

sql:

if (not exists (select * dbo.tracking cr = 123))   begin    create function [dbo].[udfdate]()   returns datetime   begin      return cast('9999-12-31' datetime)   end end 

am not allowed create function inside if statement ?

you cannot create function inside if statment way following warning

incorrect syntax: create function must statment in batch

you can creating variable stor create query in variable , execute it:

if (not exists (select * dbo.tracking cr = 123))   begin   declare @strquery varchar(max)   set @strquery = '    create function [dbo].[udfdate]()   returns datetime   begin      return cast(''9999-12-31'' datetime)   end '  exec(@strquery)  end 

but didn't understand why creating function return static value??!!