I'm importing a flat file with date fields into a sql table. I'm using a script transformation, reading the "normal" date fields into a string, massaging them, and passing them to a database table which uses standard datetime fields. No problem yet.
The file also contians a number of date fields that are all blanks. These correspond to "NULL" values. The problem is in my script I'm trying to do something like this:
(for database) (in SSIS)
date field = System.DBNULL.Value
This is wrong and I get complaints about improper data conversion, etc. What can I pass in the output string that the database will intepret as a NULL?
We have a case where in we should show date based on conditions for e.g if we had a column defined as
col varchar(10) then we would show col as 'NULL' for some condition and actual value when no condition
Normaly date values are stored here e.g under col 20150901 .
Case when col>'20150901' then 'NULL' else col end as Derivedcol
Note this is an extract process and we are presenting data by pumping the data in a table .
Now there is another similar column -colz varchar(10) which stores date but doesnt have case condition so whenever date has no value its shows null which is database null.
So whats the difference between database null and string null ?
How can we show database null for the case condition instead of string "null"?
I don't know enough math to demonstrate that any numerical operationwith a null should yield a null; although I would guess that it's true.I just don't buy it, however, when dealing with strings and nulls. In asimple table with first, middle and last name columns, I would inferthat a null value in the middle name column means the HR person forgotto ask. A zero length string, however, tells me HR did ask and there isno middle name. Regardless of whether HR asked, when I concatenate thethree fields, I can't think of a sound reason why I souldn't get thefirst and last names.Having now started a flame war, I actually have a question: How do Iset the default for any given database or table so that concat nullyields null is permanently off? I have tried exec sp_dboption'myDB','concat null yields null',false (and many variations ondelimiting the parameters) but it doesn't do jack. I can use setconcat_null_yields_null off but that only lasts for the immediatesession.I've tried to follow the thread through the BOL but I'm left scratchingmy head on how to accomplish this.Thanks.Randy
the SQL string below worked, and then started bringing up every record. it should only select records with a value in at least one of the columns, but it apears to be suggesting that all records have some data in one of the columns. if I check the database or the output on the web page there apears to be no data. ?? confused.
"SELECT id, make, model FROM vehicles WHERE workToBeDone1 IS NOT NULL OR workToBeDone2 IS NOT NULL OR workToBeDone3 IS NOT NULL OR workToBeDone4 IS NOT NULL OR workToBeDone5 IS NOT NULL"
Any ideas how I could implement this more robustly? cheers M
Folks, this isn't exactly a 'Getting Started' question, but I couldn't find a more appropriate Application Development forum.
I'm porting an open source PHP application (http://sourceforge.net/projects/gallery) to use SQL Server as a backend. One of Gallery's unit test scripts tests the ability to insert a string containing a NULL character ( ). It's OK if the string is truncated during insertion, just so long as everything before the is there.
The string being inserted looks like:
$testString = "The NULL character should be escaped !";
(Note the between "escaped " and " !")
The error that the Gallery test script is getting is:
[Microsoft][ODBC SQL Server Driver][SQL Server]Incorrect syntax near 'The NULL character should be escaped '.] in EXECUTE("INSERT INTO g2_PluginParameterMap (g_pluginType, g_pluginId, g_itemId, g_parameterName, g_parameterValue) VALUES ('module','unitTestModule',1,'test19476','The NULL character should be escaped !')")
It looks like SQL Server is complaining about the syntax. I've written a much simpler test script in the hopes of reproducing the problem, but I don't know if what I'm now hitting is the same problem or a different one.
// Connect to the db $db = new COM("ADODB.Connection") or die("Cannot start ADO"); $db->open($connectString);
// Drop & recreate the table $db->Execute ($sqlTableDrop); $db->Execute ($sqlTableCreate);
// Insert the test data //$testString = "The NULL character should be escaped !"; $testString = "This is a test string."; $res = $db->Execute("insert into ljmtemp (col1) values ('$testString')"); if (!$res) die ("INSERT failed");
// Disconnect from the db $db->Close();
?>
And it results in:
C:MyServer>php testMsSqlInsertNull.php PHP Fatal error: Uncaught exception 'com_exception' with message 'Source: Microsoft OLE DB Provider for ODBC Drivers Description: [Microsoft][ODBC SQL Server Driver][SQL Server]Unclosed quotation mark after the character string 'The NULL character should be escaped '.' in C:MyServer estMsSqlInsertNull.php:27 Stack trace: #0 C:MyServer estMsSqlInsertNull.php(27): com->Execute('insert into ljm...') #1 {main} thrown in C:MyServer estMsSqlInsertNull.php on line 27
I'm not sure if this is the same problem as Gallery is reporting or another one.
It looks like somebody is treating the as a string terminator, but when i double the backslash the literal ' ' is inserted into the database.
How can I get SQL Server to insert at least everything up to the ?
Hopefully once I have my simple script working I'll be able to figure out what's wrong in the Gallery test.
I need to check in my Stored procedure if the information passed is null or empty so I can decided to insert the new value or keep the old. How do I accomplish this please in T-SQL. Thanks in advance.
Hi: Trying to insert null value into sql table, but not working, if I use: if (strMyText.Length == 0) command.Parameters.Add("@Text", DBNull.Value); // or using:("@Text", null), or using:("@Text", DBNull) else command.Parameters.AddWithValue("@Text", strMyText); When I go back to table, I see the value is: 'NULL', has single quotation mark, suppose to be: NULL Where is the problem? Thanks a lot. Jt
Hi all, I have some columns in my database which allows null. I want to know if leaving the field to be NULL or storing an empty string into the field, which will take up more space?? if the field type is varchar(100)
I've have about 100 tables, for some reasons, column values that are originally NULL was inserted as emtpy string. So, I am wondering if I can write JUST ONE SQL (hopefully don't have to specify the field names in the SQL as well) for each table so that all the empty strings will be converted back to NULL.
Hi!I got a column, with different dates in it (Ddata type "nvarchar")...when running a SELECT on this column, I'm trying to filter thoserecordsets out, WHERE this column is NULL (I checked the table, thereare "empty" fields in the column):"SELECT bla FROM bla WHERE myColumn NOT NULL"but I still receive those "empty" fields in my resultset ...so I tried it with:SELECT bla FROM bla WHERE myColumn <> ''again, "empty" fields in my resultset ....what's going wrong there? is there a possibility to check what kind ofvalue I got in my column!?Thanks!Peter
I have an SP that I call via table adapter. If I do not pass a value in the string field ('eventRef'), the SP never gets called - it appears that the table adapter is filtering it...? I need to be able to count records that have an 'eventRef' = to the one I pass, including null. This works fine if I pass an 'eventRef', but never runs if that parm is empty.
Hi all,I have this code that I use for my Search function:SELECT DISTINCT [MUSIC_TITLE], [MUSIC_ORIGINAL_SINGER], [MUSIC_PERFORMER]FROM t_musicWHERE (@MUSIC_TITLE IS NULL OR [MUSIC_TITLE] LIKE '%' + @MUSIC_TITLE + '%') AND (@MUSIC_ARTIST IS NULL OR ([MUSIC_ORIGINAL_SINGER] LIKE '%' + @MUSIC_ARTIST + '%' OR [MUSIC_PERFORMER] LIKE '%' + @MUSIC_ARTIST + '%')) But right now if I don't enter anything in one of the textbox (2 have two, either of them can be left empty), the above Sql statement doesn't return anything since ADO.NET can't tell an empty textbox and treat it at null... So anyone please help me how to detect an empty textbox and set that to null for the above SQL statement to work. (It work in SQL Manager Studio, when I set one of the parameter = null.) I'm very new to ASP.NET stuffs, so if someone can help me to convert that function to code-behind and help me to call it from the .aspx, that would be even better as I don't want to put the code in my .aspx page... But I'm not quite there yet. Thank you all,Kenny.
I am using the following query to calculate date differences:select ..........DATEDIFF(d, recruitment_advertising.advertising_date, career_details.RTS_Email AS Datetime) AS Ad_to_RTS_days FROM .....I have stored all my dates as NVARCHAR because of the issues with localization.If the value is an empty String my output is eg: -38700. which is way off and incorrect. Some of the values in my table are NULL and they produce the correct result.Is there a T-SQL statement to replace empy Strings with the NULL value in my tables.I'd like to use it as a trigger when inserting or updating to convert empty strings to NULLbefore the values are inserted.Thanks guys.
i have a trigger on a table right now... when fields are inserted, theres a text field inserted and i want to check if that text field = '' (the empty string, not NULL) and if it doesn't equal that, then perform some row updates on other tables, but if it is empty, to not do anything else in the trigger... right now i have this:
Code:
IF ((SELECT Note FROM XATPoDetail WHERE ReqNbr = (SELECT ReqNbr FROM Inserted)) LIKE(''))
Note is the text field, XATPoDetail is the table where its being inserted into. I had to do the select FROM the table because it wouldn't let me select a text data type from the "Inserted" virtual table
but it tells me me "Error 279: The text, ntext, and image data types are invalid in this subquery or aggregate expression"
1. Have a query that fetches a real value (e.g. 4.3345643)
Let say the field is called TheReal.
How can I format the value in the select statement so I get a thousand separator(s) and two decimals in the resultset.
2. In the same query I have a left join as well. Table 2 retur (sometimes) <NULL>. Is it possible to force this <NULL> value to be a fixed string value instead in the select statement.
i have a trigger on a table right now... when fields are inserted, theres a text field inserted and i want to check if that text field = '' (the empty string, not NULL) and if it doesn't equal that, then perform some row updates on other tables, but if it is empty, to not do anything else in the trigger... right now i have this:
IF ((SELECT Note FROM XATPoDetail WHERE ReqNbr = (SELECT ReqNbr FROM Inserted)) LIKE(''))
Note is the text field, XATPoDetail is the table where its being inserted into. I had to do the select FROM the table because it wouldn't let me select a text data type from the "Inserted" virtual table
but it tells me me "Error 279: The text, ntext, and image data types are invalid in this subquery or aggregate expression"
Ok.. so I have a fixed position data feed. I read the file in as just whole rows initially, process a specific position and evaluate a conditional split to determine direction of the file for proper processing (file contains multiple recors with different layouts). This all works fine. I then use the derived column feature to process all the columns.
Most of the columns are as simple as SUBSTRING(RecordData,1,10) for example to get the first column. This all works for string data. I then have a column that is a date field. The problem occurs that the code SUBSTRING(RecordData,20,10) returns either a date or empty set of data if no date was in the original file. When this gets sent to the OLEDB connection (SQL Server 2005) into the date field it fails. If the record has a date it works, but if it is empty it fails the insert.
I tried to replace empty strings with NULLs with this code. REPLACE(TRIM(SUBSTRING(RecordData,20,10)),"",NULL(DT_WSTR,10)). This does not work. So my question is how do I bring a date field from a fixed flat file into a SQL datetime field using a derived column? More specifically is how do I set it to NULL if its empty data? When I use the above code it inserts all the rows from the file, but it sets all rows to NULL not just the empty ones.
In my source table, I have columns FirstName and LastName, both of datatype nvarchar. In my dataflow, I created two new derived columns mapped to these two columns. When pushing data to the source, I noticed that the FirstName column had a value of NULL while LastName was just an empty string (for rows that did not have any value).
My question is, why my source table column FirstName is showing a NULL value when the derived column datatype is string and the source is string? It should just be showing an empty string right?
In SSIS flat file import using fastload, I'm trying to import data into SQL 2005 previously created tables.
The table may contain column that are NULLable BUT there is NO DEFAULT for them.
If the incoming data from flat files contains nothing either between the delimeters, how can I have a NULL value inserted in the column instead of blank/empty string?
I didn't find an easy flag unless I'm doing something wrong. I know of at least two ways to do it the hard way:
1- set the DEFAULT(NULL) for EVERY column that needs this behaviour
2-set up some Derived Column option in the package to return NULL if the value is missing.
Both of the above are time consuming since I'm dealing with many tables. Is there a quick option to default the value to NULL WHEN there is NO data ELSE insert the data itself? So the same behavior that I have right now except that I want NULL in place of empty string/blank in the varchar(x) columns.
Hi, What is the difference updating a null value to char/varchar type column
versus empty string to char/varchar type column?Which is the best to do and why? Could anyone explain about this?
Example:
Table 1 : tCountry - Name varchar(80) nullable Table 2 :tState - Name char(2) nullable Table 3 :tCountryDetails - countryid,state (char(2) nullable) - May the country contain state or no state So,when the state is not present for the country ,i have two options may be - null,'' tCountryDetails.State = '' or tCountryDetails.State = null?
Hey. I need to substitute a value from a table if the input var is null. This is fine if the value coming from table is not null. But, it the table value is also null, it doesn't work. The problem I'm getting is in the isnull line which is in Dark green color because @inFileVersion is set to null explicitly and when the isnull function evaluates, value returned from DR.FileVersion is also null which is correct. I want the null=null to return true which is why i set ansi_nulls off. But it doesn't return anything. And the select statement should return something but in my case it returns null. If I comment the isnull statements in the where clause, everything works fine. Please tell me what am I doing wrong. Is it possible to do this without setting the ansi_nulls to off??? Thank you
set ansi_nulls off
go
declare
@inFileName VARCHAR (100),
@inFileSize INT,
@Id int,
@inlanguageid INT,
@inFileVersion VARCHAR (100),
@ExeState int
set @inFileName = 'A0006337.EXE'
set @inFileSize = 28796
set @Id= 1
set @inlanguageid =null
set @inFileVersion =NULL
set @ExeState =0
select Dr.StateID from table1 dR
where
DR.[FileName] = @inFileName
AND DR.FileSize =@inFileSize
AND DR.FileVersion = isnull(@inFileVersion,DR.FileVersion)
I need to pass in null/blank value in the date field or declare the field as string and convert date back to string.
I tried the 2nd option but I am having trouble converting the two digits of the recordset (rs_get_msp_info(2), 1, 2))) into a four digit yr. But it will only the yr in two digits. The mfg_start_date is delcared as a string variable
option 1 I will have to declare the mfg_start_date as date but I need to send in a blank value for this variable in the stored procedure. It won't accept a null or blank value.
Error string: [Microsoft][ODBC SQL Server Driver][SQL Server]Login failed for user '(null)'. Reason: Not associated with a trusted SQL Server connection.
Error source: Microsoft SQL-DMO (ODBC SQLState: 28000)
Help file: SQLDMO80.hlp
Help context: 1131
Error Detail Records:
Error: 0 (0); Provider Error: 0 (0)
Error string: [Microsoft][ODBC SQL Server Driver][SQL Server]Login failed for user '(null)'. Reason: Not associated with a trusted SQL Server connection.
Error source: Microsoft SQL-DMO (ODBC SQLState: 28000)
I have SQL Server 2012 SSIS. I have Excel source and OLE DB Destination.I have problem with importing CustomerSales column.CustomerSales values like 1000.00,2000.10,3000.30,NotAvailable.So I have decimal values and nvarchar mixed in on Excel column. This is requirement for solution.However SSIS reads only numeric values correctly and nvarchar values are set as Null. Why?
i'm making a web page for a clinic.it needs to be able to search for patients by first name, surname, date of birth and patient number.i'm using visual web developer and i have my database, my data source and GridView grid.i want 4 text boxes for my first name, surname etc. when u click enter on any of them i want to retrieve all their data and display it in the gridview.at the moment i have one text box on the web page and through the "Configure data source" option on the grid view i can retrieve the specified data but for only this one item, e.g. SELECT * FROM [Patients] WHERE ([DOB] = @DOB). if i add another text box to my web page, and don't do anything to it, the query wont run. if i add and "AND" statement to the query, e.g. SELECT * FROM [Patients] WHERE (([DOB] = @DOB) AND ([FirstName] = @FirstName)), again it won'r run or return and data. any ideas on what i can do or where i'm going wrong. thanks
