Be aware that there are several types of fields that can store strings. There is VarChar, nVarChar, Char, nChar, Text, and nText
The n in front of the data type signifies Unicode format, so non-english characters can be used (think Chinese/Greek/etc.)
Text and nText are the equivalent of Memo fields, allowing for billions of characters stored in a single field.
VarChar and nVarChar have a maximum of 8000 characters. This is preferred over text/ntext because there are many string manipulation fucntions that do not work with text/ntext.
Char and nChar are similar to VarChar and nVarchar. The main difference is that char/nchar will ALWAYS pad spaces to the end of a string.
To clarify my point, run the following in QA.
Code:
Select '->' + Convert(Char(20), 'Hello') + '<-'
Select '->' + Convert(VarChar(20), 'Hello') + '<-'
So, if your field(s) are declared an char or nchar, you may want to consider changing them to VarChar/nVarChar.
-George
Strong and bitter words indicate a weak cause. - Fortune cookie wisdom