MS SQL Server :: VARCHAR(MAX), NVARCHAR(MAX) And VARBINARY(MAX) Support

Support For NVARCHAR(MAX) And VARBINARY(MAX)

Nov 6, 2006

It would be nice if SQL Server Everywhere could support NVARCHAR(MAX) and VARBINARY(MAX), even if they would just be alias' for NTEXT and IMAGE. This would somewhat simplify the interoperability with SQL Server 2005 (i.e. no need to have different scripts for each database type).

Gerrit

View 3 Replies View Related

Integration Services :: Error Converting Nvarchar (512) To Varbinary (max)

Aug 27, 2015

I am using rowVersion to detect rows that need to be re-extracted for my ETL. The first step in the ETL is to get MIN_ACTIVE_ROWVERSION() from the database, as well as the rowVersion from the last successful ETL run. Both of these values are saved in variables in SSIS. Since SSIS doesn't have an associated data type, these values are converted to nvarchar(512) before getting sent to SSIS.

I'm now trying to create a stored procedure to grab the data out of the source system. The sproc takes RowVersionMin and RowVersionMax as input parameters. Those parameters are then converted to varbinary(max), and I use them in a query to select the appropriate rows.

When I run the sproc in SSMS, it runs without a problem. However, when I try to use the sproc as a data source in SSIS, I get the following error: "Error converting data type nvarchar to varbinary". Why SSIS has a problem with this, but SSMS does not? The sproc code looks like this:

ALTER PROCEDURE [dbo].[dw_DimComment_DataLoad]
@RunType varchar(3),
@RowVersionMin nvarchar(512),
@RowVersionMax nvarchar(512)
AS
BEGIN
-- SET NOCOUNT ON added to prevent extra result sets from

[Code] ....

View 2 Replies View Related

Converting Varbinary To Varchar

Jun 23, 2005

I have a password field which is of varbinary. Since its a varbinary I
cannot see the password in the database I only see hexadecimal values.
Now my question is that how can I convert those hexadecimal values to
string or varchar so I can read the password.

any ideas ??

View 1 Replies View Related

How To Translate Varchar Into Varbinary?

Apr 3, 2007

Hi everyone,

We're trying to migrate a varchar field from Sql2k to varbinary in a sql25k through a dtsx package. We get an error which tell us: "data will be lost".

Does anyone have any idea about that?

Thanks for your time and inputs,

View 1 Replies View Related

How To Convert A Column Datatype From Varchar To Varbinary?

Feb 3, 2007

I have a password column that needs to be converted from varchar to varbinary. Can anybody provide me a proper CONVERT statement syntax for it?

View 12 Replies View Related

Retrieving Varchar(max) And Varbinary(max) Fields With VFP9

Mar 20, 2007

I have a test database that contains a varbinary(max) field and a varchar(max) field.

when I do a

Select * from test where id = xx

I get the expected results if my connection string uses

'driver=SQL Server;Server'

but these two fields return no data if I use

'driver=SQL Native Client'

the other fields in the record come back with no problems.

Is there anything special I need to do to retrieve these types of fields?

View 1 Replies View Related

Can Varbinary And Varchar Lengths Be Declared Dynamically?

Mar 25, 2008

I just learned that bit masking a varbinary column can increase it's length in bytes unnecessarily. For example, I ran the following...

declare @v1 varbinary(max)

set @v1 = 0x0100AB

select len(@v1)

set @v1 = @v1 | (len(@v1) - 2) * 256

select master.dbo.fn_varbintohexstr(@v1)

select len(@v1)
...and get
3
0x00000000000101ab
8

This messes up a plan I had for varbinary column use.

So I quickly tried the following to look for strategies to deal with this unwanted growth...thought being that while I'm passed a varbinary(max), operating on a varbinary that matches its passed length would avoid the unwanted growth after bit masking....

declare @i int

set @i = 5

declare @v2 varbinary(@i)

...but got errors.

So I suppose I can use a combo of the len, substring etc functions to correct the situation after bit masking but would like to know if the more elegant approach of dynamically sizing a varbinary is possible in t-sql, or if perhaps there is a way to prevent the unwanted growth during bit masking.

View 6 Replies View Related

SQL 2005 Bug? Cannot Create Full Text Index For VARBINARY Column That's Populated With Converted NVARCHAR Values

Jul 11, 2007

Hi, I was wondering if any SQL Server gurus out there could help me...I have a table I'm trying to apply a full text catalog to, however no results are ever returned due to the text column being cataloged being of varbinary(max) that's being populated from a converted nvarchar(max) value - I've narrowed it down to this specifically, populating with non nvarchar text seems to work fine.To re-create the problem quickly...If I populate the column viaCONVERT(varbinary(max), 'test text')then there is no problem, I get results as expected.However if I populate the column viaCONVERT(varbinary(max), CAST('test text' as nvarchar(max)))no results are ever returned.Is this a bug with SQL Server 2005 Full Text Indexing? I'm happily creating full text catalogs when an nvarchar is not getting converted into a varbinary.I'm setting the Document Type column to '.html' (I've tried changing this to '.txt' in case it was a fault with the html ifilter but the problem persists so I believe I can rule this out).The reason I need to convert an nvarchar to varbinary is that the table holds multi-lingual text and I'm adding a html meta tag <META NAME="MS.LOCALE" CONTENT="ES"> to the beginning in order for the full text indexing word breaker to select the correct language to catalog the text with. The aim being to provide more relevant searches in users native languages (I've read a few articles that describe this technique, but it's the first time I've tried to apply it).Any pointers / suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Cheers,Gavin.

View 14 Replies View Related

SQL 2005 Bug? Cannot Create Full Text Index For Varbinary Column That's Populated From Converted Nvarchar Values

Jul 11, 2007

Hi, I was wondering if any SQL Server gurus out there could help me...

I have a table I'm trying to apply a full text catalog to, however no results are ever returned due to the text column being cataloged being of varbinary(max) that's being populated from a converted nvarchar(max) value.

To re-create the problem quickly...

If I populate the column via
CONVERT(varbinary(max), 'test text')
then there is no problem, I get results as expected.

However if I populate the column via
CONVERT(varbinary(max), CAST('test text' as nvarchar(max)))
no results are ever returned.

Is this a bug with SQL Server 2005 Full Text Indexing? I'm happily creating full text catalogs when an nvarchar is not getting converted into a varbinary.

I'm setting the Document Type column to '.html' (I've tried changing this to '.txt' in case it was a fault with the html ifilter but the problem persists so I believe I can rule this out).

The reason I need to convert an nvarchar to varbinary is that the table holds multi-lingual text and I'm adding a html meta tag <META NAME="MS.LOCALE" CONTENT="ES"> to the beginning in order for the full text indexing word breaker to select the correct language to catalog the text with. The aim being to provide more relevant searches in users native languages (I've read a few articles that describe this technique, but it's the first time I've tried to apply it).

Any pointers / suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Cheers,
Gavin.

UPDATE: Below is a T-SQL script you can run to demonstrate the effect I'm experiencing...

Code Snippet

-- Create test database
CREATE DATABASE FullTextTest
GO
USE FullTextTest
GO

-- Create test data table
CREATE TABLE TestTable
(
pk UNIQUEIDENTIFIER NOT NULL CONSTRAINT tablePK PRIMARY KEY,
varbinarycol VARBINARY(MAX),
documentExtension VARCHAR(5),
)
GO

-- The below single entry WILL BE FOUND (the text source is being entered directly)
INSERT INTO TestTable (pk, varbinarycol, documentExtension) VALUES (NEWID(), CONVERT(VARBINARY(MAX),'<META NAME="MS.LOCALE" CONTENT="EN">test entry 1'), '.html')

-- The bellow two entries below WILL NOT BE FOUND (the text source is taken from an NVARCHAR(MAX) value)
INSERT INTO TestTable (pk, varbinarycol, documentExtension) VALUES (NEWID(), CONVERT(VARBINARY(MAX), CAST('<META NAME="MS.LOCALE" CONTENT="EN">test entry 2' AS NVARCHAR(MAX))), '.html')
INSERT INTO TestTable (pk, varbinarycol, documentExtension) VALUES (NEWID(), CONVERT(VARBINARY(MAX), CAST('<META NAME="MS.LOCALE" CONTENT="EN">test entry 3' AS NVARCHAR(MAX))), '.html')
GO

-- Create the full text catalog
sp_fulltext_database 'enable'
GO
CREATE FULLTEXT CATALOG TEST AS DEFAULT
GO
CREATE FULLTEXT INDEX ON TestTable (varbinarycol TYPE COLUMN documentExtension LANGUAGE 1033)
KEY INDEX tablePK
GO

-- NOTE: You might need to give the catalog a chance to build before running the script below.

-- Now do a search that SHOULD RETURN 3 ROWS of data, but ONLY 1 ROW IS RETURNED
SELECT CAST(varbinarycol AS NVARCHAR(MAX)) FROM TestTable WHERE CONTAINS(varbinarycol, 'test')

View 10 Replies View Related

Nvarchar To Varchar

Aug 28, 2007

i have used nvarchar as my datatype in sql server 2000 now
i have decided to change to varchar as i can increase the character length from 4000 to 8000
Do I Lose data if i change the datatype.

View 7 Replies View Related

Nvarchar To Varchar

Jul 10, 2003

I have a table using nvarchar(for what ever reason which beyond me why its a nvarchar...) that I would like to change to a varchar. There is no unicode in the fields so I don't have to worry about but I don't want to lose any text data. Will coverting the data type lose data?

Thanks

View 9 Replies View Related

VARCHAR Vs NVARCHAR

May 16, 2006

So I have an existing table that looks like:

ID BIGINT
VAL VARCHAR(128)

I am converting this table to something that will be multi language compliant. My question is, I know that NVARCHAR's take double the space of a VARCHAR. Do I actually need to double the length of the VAL field to store the same amount of data or does the DB handle that?

Basically I want to store a 128 character NVARCHAR.. do I need to set my table up like this:

ID BIGINT
VAL NVARCHAR(256)

or

ID BIGINT
VAL NVARCHAR(128)

View 3 Replies View Related

Nvarchar && Varchar

Feb 26, 2007

Hi,I am new to MS SQL. When I create a column in a table, when shall Iuse nvarchar or varchar? Please help.Thanks,Mike

View 5 Replies View Related

Varchar && Nvarchar

Dec 18, 2006

from the definition, i know that "n" means uni-code. but what is the exact advantage of having nchar or nvarchar over char or varchar?

View 1 Replies View Related

Nvarchar And Varchar Sizes....

Jun 19, 2004

Hello again everyone....

I have another question for everyone....

I am currently cleaning up my database to get its total size down and am not sure how nvarchar and varchar work exactly.

When defining the length of a varchar or nvarchar in enterprise manager, will that effect the size of the entry (as far as data size) no matter what the length of the entry? In other words, will there be a difference in Data Size for an entry with the length of 4 characters with a definition of varchar(4) versus an entry with the length of 4 characters with a definition of varchar(50).

****If there is no difference, is there any reason in trying to best guess the size to give nvarchar or varchar columns? It would seem easier to just define the lengths of columns which need variable lengths to 200 or 400 just to save time in not trying to best guess what the size might be...*****

Thanks ahead for any help...

-Alec

View 3 Replies View Related

Conversion From Varchar To Nvarchar

Aug 4, 2006

Hi,

Can someone please explain to me how the datapages in Microsoft SQL Server 2000 works. The pages are supposed to be 8K, that is 8192 bytes of which only 8060 are accessible for data storage (due to overhead).
Now, I currently have a table containing 8 fields. Two of these fields are varchar and should be converted to nvarchar. One of the varchar fields is limited to 255 characters and the other to 4000 characters. When I convert the 255 characters field to nvarchar it works just fine, but when I want to convert the 4000 characters field I get an error from MS SQL saying that it gets to big. Is the error only for the 4000 characters field (which growths to 8000 bytes when using nvarchar instead of varchar) or must the whole table fit into one datapage?
Could a blob maybe solve my problem, or will I face new problems when storing unicode characters in a blob?

Thanks in advance

View 3 Replies View Related

To Varchar Or NVarchar, That Is The Question

Jan 14, 2006

I have a table with a Varchar field that will contain encrypted data. Since each byte can have a value from 0 through 255, can I use Varchar or should I change the field to NVarchar? The reason I ask is that during testing, the Varchar field sometimes is truncated, supposed to be 16 bytes but ends up as 5 or 6 or something less than 16.

View 2 Replies View Related

Varchar/nvarchar Length

Mar 9, 2007

Hi,I have a pretty straightforward question to do with variable length fields I hope someone can help me with:When using varchar (or nvarchar), is there any point in specifying a smaller length than the maximum? Does it save space or improve performance at all?ThanksRedit: I suppose the max rowsize is an issue. any others?

View 2 Replies View Related

Difference Between Varchar And Nvarchar

Feb 17, 2006

What is the difference between the nvarchar and varchar datatypes? Which should be used?

View 2 Replies View Related

Differents Between Varchar An Nvarchar

Apr 10, 2006

What is the diferent between varchar an nvarchar?

View 4 Replies View Related

Diff Between Varchar And Nvarchar

May 22, 2006

hi

could any one help me in differentiating between varchar and nvarchar

Thanks in advance

View 4 Replies View Related

Nvarchar Versus Varchar

Oct 10, 2007

I have table with a field defined as nvarchar. I want to change it to varchar. I have a stored procedure which defines the parameter @strCall_desc as nvarchar(4000). Are there going to be ay problems with running this sp if I just change the field type as described.

TIA

View 6 Replies View Related

Varchar And Nvarchar Issue

Jul 20, 2005

HiThe maximum length of a nvarchar could be 4000 characters while that ofvarchar could be 8000.We are trying to use unicode which would require that the datatype forone our fields be converted from varchar to nvarchar. But looks likethis would result in loss of existing data.Is there a way to do this without loss of data?Many thanks.*** Sent via Developersdex http://www.developersdex.com ***Don't just participate in USENET...get rewarded for it!

View 2 Replies View Related

Nvarchar Or Varchar In Function?

Mar 14, 2006

I am using SQL Express

I have a very simple function to retreive the maximum value (MemberID) from a member table. The memberID column is in "nvarchar(8)" type.

The following shows the function:

ALTER FUNCTION dbo.GetLastMemberID()
RETURNS nvarchar(8)
AS
BEGIN
RETURN (SELECT ISNULL(MAX(MemberID),'IM000000') FROM MemberInfo)
END

When i run the function, only the first 4 character (say 'IM00') is returned.

If I change the "RETURNS nvarchar(8)" to either "RETURNS nvarchar(16)" or "RETURNS varchar(8)", whole column (8 characters) is returned.

My question: should I use nvarchar(16) or varchar(8) in the function in this case?

Thanks

View 7 Replies View Related

SSIS: Varchar(max) Or Nvarchar(max) Help

Apr 11, 2006

Please I know this is fustrating but I really need help with this issue:

I am getting data conversion error when I tried to load data from one SQl table to another SQL table using SSIS.

The source table has a column with data type nvarchar(max). Also the destination table has the same data type nvarchar(max) but I keep getting conversion error when I use SCD transformation.

Error: " Input column "des" (116) has a long object data type of DT_TEXT, DT_NTEXT or DT_IMAGE which is not supported"

I am fine when I use OLEDB destination but I want to do an incremental load.

Is there a quick fix for this?

Thanks

Omon

View 5 Replies View Related

Difference Between Nvarchar And Varchar

Jun 26, 2007

what is the difference between nvarchar and varchar

View 3 Replies View Related

Simple Question Regarding Nvarchar And Varchar

Jun 20, 2007

I have looked at several explinations and I understand the difference between unicode and non-unicode.
I get that the basic idea around storage is "double", 2 bytes instead of 1.
My question is, does the 2 byte instead of 1 byte rule apply even if I am storing a char that doesn't need the full to bytes.
for arguments sake I have a table called "UnicodeTable" and one column called "Letter".
If I store the letter "A" on the first row of the "UnicodeTable" does the size of my database increase by 2 bytes?

View 1 Replies View Related

Internationalizing: Varchar To Nvarchar (automated?)

May 4, 2004

I have an existing application that relies on a SQL Server database.

I want to switch all varchar fields to nvarchar so it can handle multiple languages.

The database has ~25 tables, many of which have varchar fields. I want to convert them all to nvarchar.

The database has ~150 stored procedures, many of which have varchar fields. I want to convert them all to nvarchar.

Are there any tools out there that would let me convert the tables of my choosing, and the stored procedures of my choosing, so that any 'varchar' mentions are changed to 'nvarchar' ? I've only used SQL Query Analyzer to write queries and use MS Access (and some SQL Enterprise Manager) to make the tables and relationships.

Thanks,
-Bret

View 1 Replies View Related

Difference/advantage Of Varchar Vs Nvarchar

Oct 22, 1998

View 2 Replies View Related

NVARCHAR Vs VARCHAR Datatype And Performance

Aug 20, 2001

We have few stored procedures that use nvarchar datatype, this was not issue on SQL server 7.0 but in 2000 becomes a big issue.
For example query that runs for 3 minutes in SQL server 2000 by replacing NVARCHAR to VARCHAR the same query runs for 2 seconds.
The biggest challenge that I have deals with tables and user-defined datatypes of NVARCHAR that has been bounded to the table.
How can I alter those without data corruption?

View 2 Replies View Related

Nchar Or Char Or Nvarchar Or Varchar???

Apr 19, 2004

Hi,

Which of the above data type (alongwith size) should be used for storing things like Customer Name, Company name etc . ???

Also, what really is the benefit of one over the over :confused:

Thanks

View 7 Replies View Related

JDBC - Varchar Or Nvarchar Fields?

May 10, 2006

Hi, I'm starting a new application in java using JTDS jdbc driver(http://jtds.sourceforge.net) and SQLServer 2005 Express.I have to design the database from scratch and my doubt is if I have to usevarchar or nvarchar fields to store string data.Any experience about performance issues using nvarchar instead of varchar(considering that Java internally works in unicode too)?Thanks in advance,Davide.

View 4 Replies View Related