Msg 8116 - Argument data type sql_variant is invalid for argument 1 of function

A colleague presented me with the Msg 8116 - Argument data type sql_variant is invalid for argument 1 of function error message when creating a new sql script.

The Msg 8116 error message was generated by executing this code:

 select reverse(serverproperty('machinename'))

The REVERSE string function supports return types of VARCHAR or NVARCHAR. SQL Server doesn't  not support implicit conversions from sql_variant data to VARCHAR or NVARCHAR.  When an attempt is made to implicitly convert from sql_variant data type into VARCHAR or NVARCHAR , the Msg 8116 - Argument data type sql_variant is invalid for argument 1 of function  message is returned

A simple fix for the code my colleageue presented is to  explicitly CONVERT or CONVERT the sql_variant to a VARCHAR

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