Change Data Type

Hi,
I am not sure if I am posting to the correct group, but I am wondering if
there are any dangers in changing datatypes on a column.
More specifically, I want to change some varchars to nvarchars and texts to
ntexts. I already have the script written for the columns I need to change.
I have seen no issues in doing this on my test database, but I was wondering
if there are any inherent dangers in doing this.
Are there any articles that can be helpful for this subject?
Thank you,
Paul
Paul,
The issues with varchar and nvarchar are fairly straight-forward, however
ALTER TABLE cannot change texts and ntexts. I understand that you must drop
any indexes on a varchar that you are changing to nvarchar before doing the
alter. One of the other main restrictions is that the data must all fit
into the new target. The BOL explains most of this in the ALTER TABLE
topic.
You might also find the following article from SQL Server magazine helpful.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?
url=/library/en-us/dnsqlmag04/html/InsideALTERTABLE.asp
Russell Fields
"Paul" <paul@.gotheta.com> wrote in message
news:uJjE5d6MEHA.1340@.TK2MSFTNGP12.phx.gbl...
> Hi,
> I am not sure if I am posting to the correct group, but I am wondering if
> there are any dangers in changing datatypes on a column.
> More specifically, I want to change some varchars to nvarchars and texts
to
> ntexts. I already have the script written for the columns I need to
change.
> I have seen no issues in doing this on my test database, but I was
wondering
> if there are any inherent dangers in doing this.
> Are there any articles that can be helpful for this subject?
> Thank you,
> Paul
>
|||With the varchar to nvarchar make sure you're aware of the storage requirements. If you have long string lengths you need to remember that nvarchar will double your storage:
e.g.
DECLARE @.string VARCHAR(10)
SELECT@.String = 'Hello'
SELECTDATALENGTH(@.String)
SELECTDATALENGTH(CAST(@.String AS NVARCHAR(10)))
Regards
Julie
http://www.sqlporn.co.uk :o)

Change Data Type

Hi,
I am not sure if I am posting to the correct group, but I am wondering if
there are any dangers in changing datatypes on a column.
More specifically, I want to change some varchars to nvarchars and texts to
ntexts. I already have the script written for the columns I need to change.
I have seen no issues in doing this on my test database, but I was wondering
if there are any inherent dangers in doing this.
Are there any articles that can be helpful for this subject?
Thank you,
PaulPaul,
The issues with varchar and nvarchar are fairly straight-forward, however
ALTER TABLE cannot change texts and ntexts. I understand that you must drop
any indexes on a varchar that you are changing to nvarchar before doing the
alter. One of the other main restrictions is that the data must all fit
into the new target. The BOL explains most of this in the ALTER TABLE
topic.
You might also find the following article from SQL Server magazine helpful.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?
url=/library/en-us/dnsqlmag04/html/InsideALTERTABLE.asp
Russell Fields
"Paul" <paul@.gotheta.com> wrote in message
news:uJjE5d6MEHA.1340@.TK2MSFTNGP12.phx.gbl...
> Hi,
> I am not sure if I am posting to the correct group, but I am wondering if
> there are any dangers in changing datatypes on a column.
> More specifically, I want to change some varchars to nvarchars and texts
to
> ntexts. I already have the script written for the columns I need to
change.
> I have seen no issues in doing this on my test database, but I was
wondering
> if there are any inherent dangers in doing this.
> Are there any articles that can be helpful for this subject?
> Thank you,
> Paul
>|||With the varchar to nvarchar make sure you're aware of the storage requirements. If you have long string lengths you need to remember that nvarchar will double your storage
e.g
DECLARE @.string VARCHAR(10
SELECT @.String = 'Hello
SELECT DATALENGTH(@.String
SELECT DATALENGTH(CAST(@.String AS NVARCHAR(10))
Regard
Juli
http://www.sqlporn.co.uk :o)

Change Data Type

Hi,
I am not sure if I am posting to the correct group, but I am wondering if
there are any dangers in changing datatypes on a column.
More specifically, I want to change some varchars to nvarchars and texts to
ntexts. I already have the script written for the columns I need to change.
I have seen no issues in doing this on my test database, but I was wondering
if there are any inherent dangers in doing this.
Are there any articles that can be helpful for this subject?
Thank you,
PaulPaul,
The issues with varchar and nvarchar are fairly straight-forward, however
ALTER TABLE cannot change texts and ntexts. I understand that you must drop
any indexes on a varchar that you are changing to nvarchar before doing the
alter. One of the other main restrictions is that the data must all fit
into the new target. The BOL explains most of this in the ALTER TABLE
topic.
You might also find the following article from SQL Server magazine helpful.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?
url=/library/en-us/dnsqlmag04/html/InsideALTERTABLE.asp
Russell Fields
"Paul" <paul@.gotheta.com> wrote in message
news:uJjE5d6MEHA.1340@.TK2MSFTNGP12.phx.gbl...
> Hi,
> I am not sure if I am posting to the correct group, but I am wondering if
> there are any dangers in changing datatypes on a column.
> More specifically, I want to change some varchars to nvarchars and texts
to
> ntexts. I already have the script written for the columns I need to
change.
> I have seen no issues in doing this on my test database, but I was
wondering
> if there are any inherent dangers in doing this.
> Are there any articles that can be helpful for this subject?
> Thank you,
> Paul
>|||With the varchar to nvarchar make sure you're aware of the storage requireme
nts. If you have long string lengths you need to remember that nvarchar will
double your storage:
e.g.
DECLARE @.string VARCHAR(10)
SELECT @.String = 'Hello'
SELECT DATALENGTH(@.String)
SELECT DATALENGTH(CAST(@.String AS NVARCHAR(10)))
Regards
Julie
http://www.sqlporn.co.uk :o)

CATCH BLOCK ERRORS - what are the datatypes?

Hi,
I am writing my catch block to log error messages to a table. For this
purpose I am creating a log table, but I need to know what are the
datatypes? I can't seem to find this info.
I need the datatype of the following:
ERROR_NUMBER() AS ErrorNumber,
ERROR_SEVERITY() AS ErrorSeverity,
ERROR_STATE() as ErrorState,
ERROR_PROCEDURE() as ErrorProcedure,
ERROR_LINE() as ErrorLine,
ERROR_MESSAGE() as ErrorMessage;
ThanksHi
These are documented in Books online see erturn type in
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms175069.aspx etc..
Numbers are int, procedure is nvarchar(126) and message is nvarchar(4000).
John
"tootsuite@.gmail.com" wrote:
> Hi,
> I am writing my catch block to log error messages to a table. For this
> purpose I am creating a log table, but I need to know what are the
> datatypes? I can't seem to find this info.
> I need the datatype of the following:
> ERROR_NUMBER() AS ErrorNumber,
> ERROR_SEVERITY() AS ErrorSeverity,
> ERROR_STATE() as ErrorState,
> ERROR_PROCEDURE() as ErrorProcedure,
> ERROR_LINE() as ErrorLine,
> ERROR_MESSAGE() as ErrorMessage;
> Thanks
>

CATCH BLOCK ERRORS - what are the datatypes?

Hi,
I am writing my catch block to log error messages to a table. For this
purpose I am creating a log table, but I need to know what are the
datatypes? I can't seem to find this info.
I need the datatype of the following:
ERROR_NUMBER() AS ErrorNumber,
ERROR_SEVERITY() AS ErrorSeverity,
ERROR_STATE() as ErrorState,
ERROR_PROCEDURE() as ErrorProcedure,
ERROR_LINE() as ErrorLine,
ERROR_MESSAGE() as ErrorMessage;
Thanks
Hi
These are documented in Books online see erturn type in
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms175069.aspx etc..
Numbers are int, procedure is nvarchar(126) and message is nvarchar(4000).
John
"tootsuite@.gmail.com" wrote:

> Hi,
> I am writing my catch block to log error messages to a table. For this
> purpose I am creating a log table, but I need to know what are the
> datatypes? I can't seem to find this info.
> I need the datatype of the following:
> ERROR_NUMBER() AS ErrorNumber,
> ERROR_SEVERITY() AS ErrorSeverity,
> ERROR_STATE() as ErrorState,
> ERROR_PROCEDURE() as ErrorProcedure,
> ERROR_LINE() as ErrorLine,
> ERROR_MESSAGE() as ErrorMessage;
> Thanks
>

CATCH BLOCK ERRORS - what are the datatypes?

Hi,
I am writing my catch block to log error messages to a table. For this
purpose I am creating a log table, but I need to know what are the
datatypes? I can't seem to find this info.
I need the datatype of the following:
ERROR_NUMBER() AS ErrorNumber,
ERROR_SEVERITY() AS ErrorSeverity,
ERROR_STATE() as ErrorState,
ERROR_PROCEDURE() as ErrorProcedure,
ERROR_LINE() as ErrorLine,
ERROR_MESSAGE() as ErrorMessage;
ThanksHi
These are documented in Books online see erturn type in
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms175069.aspx etc..
Numbers are int, procedure is nvarchar(126) and message is nvarchar(4000).
John
"tootsuite@.gmail.com" wrote:

> Hi,
> I am writing my catch block to log error messages to a table. For this
> purpose I am creating a log table, but I need to know what are the
> datatypes? I can't seem to find this info.
> I need the datatype of the following:
> ERROR_NUMBER() AS ErrorNumber,
> ERROR_SEVERITY() AS ErrorSeverity,
> ERROR_STATE() as ErrorState,
> ERROR_PROCEDURE() as ErrorProcedure,
> ERROR_LINE() as ErrorLine,
> ERROR_MESSAGE() as ErrorMessage;
> Thanks
>

CASTing a datatype returned by CASE Statement

I realize that the CASE statement doesn't like different datatypes as return values but if I want to format the "0" in the second WHEN condition below to "000", how do I do that? I have a "Region" that is "000" and would like it to show up that way at the very top of my report. I have the GROUP BY and ORDER BY to work fine, it just shows up as "0" and I can't change it. I realize it is being read as an int but am having trouble with the CAST and where to place it. Thanks again, you guys are great.

ddave

SELECT Region =
CASE WHEN branch_num IN(48,53,78,173,186,198,208,212,257,286,287,317,35 3,398,440,
478,571,572,610,1069) THEN 44
WHEN branch_num IN(484,532,841,864,7001,7101,7102,7103,7104,9031) THEN 0
ELSE 999
ENDThat depends (doesn't it always?) on what you really want. If you want the other regions to show using normal INT formatting, but 0 to be a special case That is one thing, if you want all the region numbers to be zero filled, that is something different. If you want something I haven't thought of yet, then that's probably different too.

The quick and dirty would be to use:SELECT Region =
CASE
WHEN branch_num IN(48,53,78,173,186,198,208,212,257,286,287,317,35 3,398,440,
478,571,572,610,1069) THEN ' 44'
WHEN branch_num IN(484,532,841,864,7001,7101,7102,7103,7104,9031) THEN '000'
ELSE '999'
END

-PatP|||Pat,

Once again, "You da Man!!". It works perfectly. I decided to use '000', ' 1', ' 78', etc. I spent over an hour on it and I knew it was something easy. I mean I don't expect a medal or anything but you can be lost w/o "the little details". Thanks again.

ddave|||If I want the format to show the Region field just once, is there a way to do that? My current report has a Region field immediately to the left of BranchNo. Branches are contained within the Regions. I got it to list Region every time I show a record but just in case the manager wants it formatted the way I mention I want to be prepared. The example I was to follow has Region just once.

This is an example of what I have now:

code:--------------------
Region BranchNo OrderNo ErrorCode1 ErrorCode2 ErrorCode3
000 478 111 0 1 1
000 478 112 0 0 0
000 478 113 1 0 0
001 610 119 0 0 0
001 610 120 1 0 0
----------------------

This is an example of what I wish to try:

code:--------------------
Region BranchNo OrderNo ErrorCode1 ErrorCode2 ErrorCode3
000 478 111 0 1 1
478 112 0 0 0
478 113 1 0 0
001 610 119 0 0 0
610 120 1 0 0
----------------------

ddave|||What reporting tool are you using? Hopefully this isn't 100% Transact-SQL based, right?

-PatP|||Well, I am looking at the data in Query Analyzer but that is a good question. I guess the real answer is that we haven't decided yet. I can use Access though I have to figure out the mechanics which I know won't be difficult. I can even stick it on an Excel spreadsheet as long as it looks good. I say Access because that is "what the others did" but it is not an issue.

ddave|||It's a presntation issue, and Access is very good at it, and can easily do what your asking...

I'd love to setup reporting services though...

Anyone seen it?

What's the installation like?

What's the interface?

Can you use the same box as sql server?

PS. If they say Crystal...run...|||Reporting Services is quite cool, but it is rather complex and it requires Visual Studio to develop reports.

MS-Access would be beauteous, and would make the formatting, grouping, etc rather simple. I'm not nearly as alergic to Crystal Reports as most folks around here seem to be, but I would STRONGLY advise using Access unless you have another tool of choice.

-PatP

CAST/Convert and performance measurements

Has anyone any testdata on how long a cast/convert from varchar to other datatypes is taking. Is casting a large number of data a major problem for MSSQL 2000?This is what I know.

CAST is the old way that SQL used to change from one data type to another. CONVERT is the preferred method according Microsoft.

I've used CONVERT on tables with a couple hundred thousand rows and didn't really see a large degradation in performance.

Hope this helps.|||CAST has simpler syntax, CONVERT has more functionality. They both work fast, and if you look at the documentation for them you'll see that SQL Server will do many conversion implicitily, so that you don't even need to use CAST or CONVERT.

blindman