I'm designing a database that will not be that large (I would be surprised if it ever surpassed 50,000 rows across all tables), but will be accessed quite often, so I am doing my best to optimize its structure, such as doing 3NF, selecting appropriate data types, etc.
I have a few columns that will contain numeric data (such as an invoice number (from an external source) or location ID). However, one of my classes in college was about database design, and we were taught that if you won't be doing mathmatic computation on a field (such as the invoice or location fields I mentioned earlier), then you should use a string literal type (char, varchar, etc.)
Unfortunatly, the professor did not explain much as to why this should be done. From the standpoint of semantic analysis, these types of fields are probably more labels than they are numbers. However, I don't find that very convincing (or even helpful).
In short, my question is that given a column holding numeric data that isn't worked on in a mathematical sense, is it really better to mark it as a string literal than a number? Any articles or studies I can read relating to this?
I would think that comparisons would be faster with int, as well as data storage (though, as mentioned, that's not as big of a concern). Sadly, Google doesn't have many helpful resources. (Lots of stuff on char vs varchar, though.)
I read the topic from JROdden and this case is similiar but...
I got several varchar fields with values like 1.2 1.3 ... these I can covert with select CONVERT(dec(5,2), fieldname) as fieldname
In fact I also solved undefined- and NULL-values with. CONVERT(decimal(12, 2), CASE WHEN GESCHKOSTMAX IS NULL OR GESCHKOSTMAX < '0' THEN '0' ELSE GESCHKOSTMAX END) as GESCHKOSTMAX,
But now there are values like 1,4 and these ones neither CONVERT nor CAST will handle.
I tried the SELECT DISTINCT KMPAUSCHALE FROM extr_INTFIRMA WHERE (isnumeric(KMPAUSCHALE) = 1)
and get 0,40 0.25 0.30 and so on...
The error is: [Microsoft][ODBC SQL Driver][SQL Server]Error converting datatype varchar to decimal. (or float or numeric (whatever I tried))
I think the easiest way would be to insist on higher data quality but I also would like to solve this interesting challenge.
Thanks for any hints
By the way, I followed rudys link to http://rudy.ca/afdb.html and now I know how I could protect myself !!!!
There must be a voice in my head saying: Try the db-forum, try it and stay happy... ;-)
insert into scn_transaction (sourceSystemName) values(@sourceSystem);
SELECT @txOut = @@identity
Whose purpose is to perform an insert into a table and return me the identity value of the inserted record, which I'll then use throughout the rest of my package. The identity column in the inserted table is numeric(18,0).
I execute the stored proc with the following sql with an OLE DB connection manager:
exec sp_newTransaction ?, ?
The first parameter is a string variable from earlier in the package, and the second is the output parameter. I have the following parameter mappings to the execute sql task:
The proc is correctly called, and the row insesrted, however I get a type conversion error when SSIS attempts to map the return parameter to my package variable... I've tried all sorts of combonations, and can't seem to get it to execute.
At one point I wasn't returning a numeric, but rather an int from the stored proc, and all was well until I went to use the variable in a derived column later in the package, and the type was converted quite incorrectly (a 1 was 77799789080 or some such), indicating a type conversion error likely related to the encoding of the number.
I'd like to keep the datatypes as numeric and make ssis use those - any pointers are greatly appreciated as to what type my package variable should be to allow proper assignment of a sql server numeric type to it.
I have a field in a table that stores date of birth. The field's datatype is char(6) and looks like this: 091703 (mmddyy). I want to convert this value to a datetime datatype.
What is the syntax to convert char(6) to datetime?
I have to store the result of a calculation in a column of type CHAR(7) (and am unable to change the column type).
The calculation can have results ranging in size from 0.1234567 to 99999999.
In the first case, I would need to store the value of 0.12345 in the column. In the later case, an error should be thrown.
So I need to store all of the significant digits from the left of the decimal (if there are < 7) and as many of the digits to the right as will fit into a CHAR(7), with the remaining precision being truncated.
I have imported some data to sql2k from my old system. Somehow, it importedinvoice amount to char type.I just created another column called invamt2 type NUMERIC so I can copy orconvert content of invamt which is type CHAR. There are about 50,000records.How can I convert/cast from char type to numeric type ?Thanks
Hi all, There are several columns called enabled with a char datatype in my database. One enabled column per table. These columns either have a value of T or F (true or false), depending on whether they're enabled or not. I want to change these columns to a bit datatype and insert the relevant value of true or false... I guess the best way to do this is to add a new column to a table with a bit datatype, and based on the value in the current enabled column, insert TRUE or FALSE. Anyone ideas on the best way to accomplish this? Thanks.
here is my problem: i have a variable @sid_x as binary(16) = 0x4CF254AB0BA5D411AA3E00508BC5C413 and i want to use it as argument in sp_addlogin statement.
select @sqlcmd = 'sp_addlogin "test", @sid = ' + @sid_t /* this doesn't work, because @sid_t is binary... */
select @sqlcmd = 'sp_addlogin "test", @sid = ' + convert (char (20), @sid_x) /* this doesn't work either, because it doesn't convert to binary text */
my question, is there any way i can get @sid_x in follow text format 0x4CF254AB0BA5D411AA3E00508BC5C413 ?
I am trying to run the following query:ALTER TABLE dnb_profileALTER COLUMN [family update date] datetimeand I keep getting the following error:Server: Msg 242, Level 16, State 3, Line 1The conversion of a char data type to a datetime data type resulted inan out-of-range datetime value.The statement has been terminated.Can anyone tell me how I can do this successfully??Thanks,Connie SawyerFoley & LardnerJoin Bytes!
Hi guys/ladies I'm still having some trouble formatting a select statement correctly. I am using a sqldatasource control on an aspx page. It is connecting via odbc string to an Informix database. Here is my select statement cut down to the most basic elements. SELECT commentFROM informix.ipr_stucomWHERE (comment > 70) The column "comment" contains student grades ranging from 0-100 and the letters I, EE, P, F, etc. Therefore the column is of a char type. This is a problem because I cannot run the above statement without hitting an alpha record and getting the following error "Character to numeric conversion error" How can I write this statement where it will work in the datasource control and have it only look at numeric values and skip the alpha values? I have tried case with cast and isnumeric... I don't think that I have the formating correct. I have also used: WHERE (NOT (comment = ' I' OR comment = ' EE' OR comment = ' NG' OR comment = ' WP' OR comment = ' WF' OR comment = ' P' OR comment = ' F')) This works but is very clunky and could possibly break if other letters are input in the future. There has to be a better way.I am sorry for my ignorance and thanks again for your help.
I'm wondering which way is the best way to store your numeric values. It probably doesnt matter, b/c you can always convert back and forth...but i'm just wondering what the best practice is i guess...
Hi All: I am new to Sql 2000 database,Now I'm planing to create a table in my databse,my table included below fields like this : PoNo(the length is 15 characters) ,Supplier Name(the length is 50 characters).etc but I don't how to select the datatype for them. should I select Char or VarChar ? which one is the best slection ? thans in advanced!
I have to develop a package to get some data from a 10g Oracle database and load it to a SQL Server 2005 database.
In my design I used Oracle Provider for OledDB as my source provider following Microsoft recommendations found here : http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb332055.aspx
As I have to use a parametrized query against my Oracle database I create a variable with my query that I override at runtime with a script task to update the parameters values.
One of the return column is of numeric datatype.
To handle this known issue with Oracle sources I edited through the advanced editor my Oledb source component to manually correct the precision.
Everything works fine with one of my package.
So I repeat the whole process while designing an other one with the same purposes.
As for the previous one I first unit test every components and everything works. But when running the full package it raised an error code 0x80004005 Error while validating post executing phase of the component (sorry for the poor translation from french to english ...)
I open my dataflow where the component is and found no warnings or errors. I edited through the advanced editor my Oledb source component and found that there's an error on the precision scale of the numeric return column. The message warn me that the precision must be between 1 and 38. I checked this column and in the "OLE DB Source output / External Columns" the precision is 0 though I previously manually corrected it. I upadted again for a 18 precision as it is for this column in "OLE DB Source output / Output Columns". But it never keeps my changes ......
I delete the component and recreate it to force the metadata to be updated but always the same thing, the precision scale for this column in the "OLE DB Source output / External Columns" never keeps my 18 value.
I have a table that contains a lot of demographic information. The data is usually small (<20 chars) but ocassionally needs to handle large values (250 chars). Right now its set up for varchar(max) and I don't think I want to do this.
How does varchar(max) store info differently from varchar(250)? Either way doesn't it have to hold the container information? So the word "Crackers" have 8 characters to it and information sayings its 8 characters long in both cases. This meaning its taking up same amount of space?
Also my concern will be running queries off of it, does a varchar(max) choke up queries because the fields cannot be properly analyzed? Is varchar(250) any better?
Should I just go with char(250) and watch my db size explode?
Usually the data that is 250 characters contain a lot of blank space that is removed using a SPROC so its not usually 250 characters for long.
when I run below query I got Error of Arithmetic overflow error converting numeric to data type numeric declare @a numeric(16,4)
set @a=99362600999900.0000
The 99362600999900 value before numeric is 14 and variable that i declared is of 16 length. Then why this error is coming ? When I set Length 18 then error removed.
I'm getting the above when trying to populate a variable. The values in question are : @N = 21 @SumXY = -1303765191530058.2251000000 @SumXSumY = -5338556963168643.7875000000
When I run, SELECT (@N * @SumXY) - (@SumXSumY * @SumXSumY) in QA I get the result OK which is -28500190448996439680147097583285.072256 ie 32 places to left of decimal and 6 to the right When I try the following ie to populate a variable with that value I get the error - SELECT R2Top = (@N * @SumXY) - (@SumXSumY * @SumXSumY)@R2Top is NUMERIC (38, 10)
( @CompanyID NVARCHAR(36), @DivisionID NVARCHAR(36), @DepartmentID NVARCHAR(36), @ItemID NVARCHAR(36), @OrderNo NVARCHAR(36), @LineNo NVARCHAR(36), @TAllotedQty Numeric, @EmployeeID NVARCHAR(36), @Trndate datetime ) AS BEGIN By default iam passing 12 char itemid as parameter...
Here iam selecting the itemid from InventoryLedger -if it is 8 char than this query should be executed IF EXISTS(SELECT ItemID FROM InventoryLedger WHERE TransDate=@Trndate AND ItemID=@ItemID AND ILLineNumber =@LineNo AND TransNumber=@OrderNo AND TransactionType='Production' AND CompanyID=@CompanyID AND DivisionID= @DivisionID AND DepartmentID=@DepartmentID)
BEGIN DECLARE @Qty INT
select @Qty =QUANTITY from inventoryledger WHERE TransDate=@Trndate AND ItemID=@ItemID AND ILLineNumber =@LineNo AND TransNumber=@OrderNo AND TransactionType='Production' AND CompanyID=@CompanyID AND DivisionID= @DivisionID AND DepartmentID=@DepartmentID select qtyonhand=qtyonhand+@Qty from InventoryByWareHouse where ItemID=@ItemID END
Here iam selecting the itemid from InventoryLedger -if it is 12 char than this query should be executed(both queries are same) IF EXISTS(SELECT ItemID FROM InventoryLedger WHERE TransDate=@Trndate AND ItemID=@ItemID AND ILLineNumber =@LineNo AND TransNumber=@OrderNo AND TransactionType='Production' AND CompanyID=@CompanyID AND DivisionID= @DivisionID AND DepartmentID=@DepartmentID)
BEGIN DECLARE @Qty INT
select @Qty =QUANTITY from inventoryledger WHERE TransDate=@Trndate AND ItemID=@ItemID AND ILLineNumber =@LineNo AND TransNumber=@OrderNo AND TransactionType='Production' AND CompanyID=@CompanyID AND DivisionID= @DivisionID AND DepartmentID=@DepartmentID select qtyonhand=qtyonhand+@Qty from InventoryByWareHouse where ItemID=@ItemID END
I add some records to two tables after createing operation completed.
Then i use dbcc page command to oversee the structures of data page in two tables. I found some interest things: The rows in two tabes take up same space:9 bytes
You can see the "9" on top of the data, for example:Slot 0, Offset 0x60, Length 9, DumpStyle BYTE or calculate from the offset array
HI,I have a table with IDENTITY column with the datatype as INTEGER. Nowthis table record count is almost reaching its limt. that is totalrecord count is almost near to 2^31-1. It will reach the limit with inanother one or two months.In order to avoid the arithmentic overflow error 8115, we would likechange the datatype from INT to BIGINT. we hope this will solve ourproblem.How do I approch this datatype conversion?. Since the data count ishuge, that leads to a long down time of database.we need better approach or solution for this problem?. kindly give mea better solution that will reduce the total downtime of the productiondatabase.?.Regards
i have so doubts in my mind and that i want to discuss with you guys... Can i use more then 5/6 fields in a table with datatype of Text as u know Text can store maximu data... ? acutally i am trying to store a very long strings values into the all fields. it's just popup into my mind that might be table structer would not able to store that my amount of data when u use more then 5/6 text datatypes...
and another thing... is which one is better to use as data type "Text" or "varchar(max)"... ? if any article to read more about these thing,, can you refere to me...
i have to display some of my SQL data on a webpage, and i don't want to use the gridview and all his "friends". all i want is to display some values out of the sqlDataSource on my webpage.is it possible? and if so, then how can i do it?thanks in advance.
I have a Report that has a document map Label in the Report which I need to remove. However as the report has over 50 text-boxes I am having difficulty locating it. I have had a look at the XML but that does not seem to indicate the offending text box. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
