title: Is there any way to DISTINCT or group by a text (or ntext) in SQL Server 2005?
body: <p>In a table, I have a column called MEMO_TEXT that is a text data type. When I try creating a view and use a GROUP BY, I get the following error:</p>
  
  <blockquote>
    <p>SQL Server Database Error: The text, ntext, and image data types cannot be compared or sorted, except when using IS NULL or LIKE operator.</p>
  </blockquote>
  
  <p>I get this error when I try to do a DISTINCT on the query as well. Any ideas on how to get around this? </p>
  
  <p>If you need any more information, please let me know.</p>