String or binary data would be truncated -- Heisenberg problem
- by harpo
When you get this error, the first thing you ask is, which column? Unfortunately, SQL Server is no help here. So you start doing trial and error. Well, right now I have a statement like:
INSERT tbl (A, B, C, D, E, F, G)
SELECT A, B * 2, C, D, E, q.F, G
FROM tbl
,othertable q
WHERE etc etc
Note that
Some values are modified or linked in from another table, but most values are coming from the original table, so they can't really cause truncation going back to the same field (that I know of).
Eliminating fields one at a time eventually makes the error go away, if I do it cumulatively, but — and here's the kicker — it doesn't matter which fields I eliminate. It's as if SQL Server is objecting to the total length of the row, which I doubt, since there are only about 40 fields in all, and nothing large.
Anyone ever seen this before?
Thanks.
UPDATE: I have also done "horizontal" testing, by filtering out the SELECT, with much the same result. In other words, if I say
WHERE id BETWEEN 1 AND 100: Error
WHERE id BETWEEN 1 AND 50: No error
WHERE id BETWEEN 50 AND 100: No error
I tried many combinations, and it cannot be limited to a single row.