CAST or CONVERT from ntext to varchar? how?

[MrPeds]

Hi,

i) Is it possible to convert a database field that is an ntext data type to a simple nvarchar data type in a SELECT query? If so, how?

e.g. is it like SELECT col1, col2, CAST(col3, nvarchar(10) ), FROM tbl

ii) Furthermore, is it possible to do a CONVERT (or CAST) from an ntext data type to nvarchar in a subquery as i got errors relating to this when I tried combining the principles. e.g.

SELECT col1, col2, (sub query 1), (SELECT CAST(ntextfield, nvarchar) FROM tbl...), ... ?

Thanks in advance,

MrPeds

 

[SQLSister]

yes you can cast and conver ntext to nchar or nvarchar, but it will get truncated becasue you cannot store the same number of characters in both datatypes.

You didn;t specify the length of nvarchar in your 2nd example. Perhaps maybe that was the problem?

 

[swampBoogie]

The syntax for cast is

cast(expression AS datatype)