VarChar and Text data types 1

[SBendBuckeye]

Hello All,

We have a table with a field defined as varchar(8000). Every so often, it exceeds that so 2 or more records are created. When processing them, I need to concatenate them all together which I believe I can do with a text datatype. However, that is not valid as a local variable type in a stored procedure.

The data is irregular and is key word parsed, but there is no certainty as to where or when the key words appear so I am trying to avoid having to parse at the individual record level if I can avoid it.

I can create a cursor to return what I need, but I don't know how to create a large enough data structure to allow me to process it as a unit. It is extremely rare to find more than 3 or 4 records in a set.

Thanks for any ideas and/or suggestions!

Have a great day!

j2consulting@yahoo.com

 

[SQLSister]

So am I given to understand that the only reason you aren't using text as a datatype is because you can't input or edit it using an sp?

Why don't you consider breaking text up into smaller chunks at the user interface and then putting them in one chunk at a time using WRITETEXT and UPDATETEXT?

Questions about posting. See faq183-874
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[SBendBuckeye]

Thanks, I haven't worked at this level before. I didn't know about WriteText and UpdateText. That's all I needed was someone to point me.

Have a great day!

j2consulting@yahoo.com