I'm trying to query my sql database to return all the rows where the ID is contained in a separate tables column. The list of project IDs is kept in the Feedback table in the Project_ID Column with datatype varchar. I am trying to return the rows from the Projects table where the IDs are kept in the Project_ID column with datatype varchar.
I am doing this using the query
SELECT * FROM Projects WHERE Project_ID IN (
SELECT Project_ID FROM Feedback WHERE ID = 268 and Project_ID IS NOT NULL
)
When I run this query I am returned with the message:
Conversion failed when converting the varchar value '36;10;59' to data type int
This is yet another example of the importance of normalizing your data.
Keeping multiple data points in a single column is almost never the correct design, and by almost never I mean about 99.9999%.
If you can't normalize your database, you can use a workaround like this:
SELECT *
FROM Projects p
WHERE EXISTS (
SELECT Project_ID
FROM Feedback F WHERE ID = 268
AND Project_ID IS NOT NULL
AND ';'+ F.Project_ID +';' LIKE '%;'+ CAST(p.Project_ID as varchar) +';%'
)
You can't use the IN operator since it's expecting a list of values delimited by a comma, while you try to supply it with a single value that is delimited by a semicolon. Even if the values in Project_ID was delimited by a comma it would still not work.
The reason I've added the ; on each side of the Project_ID in both tables is that this way the LIKE operator will return true for any location it finds the Projects.Project_Id inside the Feedback.Project_Id. You must add the ; to the Projects.Project_Id to prevent the LIKE to return true when you are looking for a number that is a partial match to the numbers in the delimited string. Consider looking for 12 in a string containing 1;112;455 - without adding the delimiter to the search value (12 in this example) the LIKE operator would return true.
I'm using SQL Server 2014. My request I believe is rather simple. I have one table containing a field holding a date value that is stored as VARCHAR, and another table containing a field holding a date value that is stored as INT.
The date value in the VARCHAR field is stored like this: 2015M01
The data value in the INT field is stored like this: 201501
I need to compare these tables against each other using EXCEPT. My thought process was to somehow extract or TRIM the "M" out of the VARCHAR value and see if it would let me compare the two. If anyone has a better idea such as using CAST to change the date formats or something feel free to suggest that as well.
I am also concerned that even extracting the "M" out of the VARCHAR may still prevent the comparison since one will still remain VARCHAR and the other is INT. If possible through a T-SQL query to convert on the fly that would be great advice as well. :)
REPLACE the string and then CONVERT to integer
SELECT A.*, B.*
FROM TableA A
INNER JOIN
(SELECT intField
FROM TableB
) as B
ON CONVERT(INT, REPLACE(A.varcharField, 'M', '')) = B.intField
Since you say you already have the query and are using EXCEPT, you can simply change the definition of that one "date" field in the query containing the VARCHAR value so that it matches the INT format of the other query. For example:
SELECT Field1, CONVERT(INT, REPLACE(VarcharDateField, 'M', '')) AS [DateField], Field3
FROM TableA
EXCEPT
SELECT Field1, IntDateField, Field3
FROM TableB
ＨＯＷＥＶＥＲ, while I realize that this might not be feasible, your best option, if you can make this happen, would be to change how the data in the table with the VARCHAR field is stored so that it is actually an INT in the same format as the table with the data already stored as an INT. Then you wouldn't have to worry about situations like this one.
Meaning:
Add an INT field to the table with the VARCHAR field.
Do an UPDATE of that table, setting the INT field to the string value with the M removed.
Update any INSERT and/or UPDATE stored procedures used by external services (app, ETL, etc) to do that same M removal logic on the way in. Then you don't have to change any app code that does INSERTs and UPDATEs. You don't even need to tell anyone you did this.
Update any "get" / SELECT stored procedures used by external services (app, ETL, etc) to do the opposite logic: convert the INT to VARCHAR and add the M on the way out. Then you don't have to change any app code that gets data from the DB. You don't even need to tell anyone you did this.
This is one of many reasons that having a Stored Procedure API to your DB is quite handy. I suppose an ORM can just be rebuilt, but you still need to recompile, even if all of the code references are automatically updated. But making a datatype change (or even moving a field to a different table, or even replacinga a field with a simple CASE statement) "behind the scenes" and masking it so that any code outside of your control doesn't know that a change happened, not nearly as difficult as most people might think. I have done all of these operations (datatype change, move a field to a different table, replace a field with simple logic, etc, etc) and it buys you a lot of time until the app code can be updated. That might be another team who handles that. Maybe their schedule won't allow for making any changes in that area (plus testing) for 3 months. Ok. It will be there waiting for them when they are ready. Any if there are several areas to update, then they can be done one at a time. You can even create new stored procedures to run in parallel for any updated app code to have the proper INT datatype as the input parameter. And once all references to the VARCHAR value are gone, then delete the original versions of those stored procedures.
If you want everything in the first table that is not in the second, you might consider something like this:
select t1.*
from t1
where not exists (select 1
from t2
where cast(replace(t1.varcharfield, 'M', '') as int) = t2.intfield
);
This should be close enough to except for your purposes.
I should add that you might need to include other columns in the where statement. However, the question only mentions one column, so I don't know what those are.
You could create a persisted view on the table with the char column, with a calculated column where the M is removed. Then you could JOIN the view to the table containing the INT column.
CREATE VIEW dbo.PersistedView
WITH SCHEMA_BINDING
AS
SELECT ConvertedDateCol = CONVERT(INT, REPLACE(VarcharCol, 'M', ''))
--, other columns including the PK, etc
FROM dbo.TablewithCharColumn;
CREATE CLUSTERED INDEX IX_PersistedView
ON dbo.PersistedView(<the PK column>);
SELECT *
FROM dbo.PersistedView pv
INNER JOIN dbo.TableWithIntColumn ic ON pv.ConvertedDateCol = ic.IntDateCol;
If you provide the actual details of both tables, I will edit my answer to make it clearer.
A persisted view with a computed column will perform far better on the SELECT statement where you join the two columns compared with doing the CONVERT and REPLACE every time you run the SELECT statement.
However, a persisted view will slightly slow down inserts into the underlying table(s), and will prevent you from making DDL changes to the underlying tables.
If you're looking to not persist the values via a schema-bound view, you could create a non-persisted computed column on the table itself, then create a non-clustered index on that column. If you are using the computed column in WHERE or JOIN clauses, you may see some benefit.
By way of example:
CREATE TABLE dbo.PCT
(
PCT_ID INT NOT NULL
CONSTRAINT PK_PCT
PRIMARY KEY CLUSTERED
IDENTITY(1,1)
, SomeChar VARCHAR(50) NOT NULL
, SomeCharToInt AS CONVERT(INT, REPLACE(SomeChar, 'M', ''))
);
CREATE INDEX IX_PCT_SomeCharToInt
ON dbo.PCT(SomeCharToInt);
INSERT INTO dbo.PCT(SomeChar)
VALUES ('2015M08');
SELECT SomeCharToInt
FROM dbo.PCT;
Results:
I am trying to search from SQL table where my column where to search is varchar type and my keyword for the search should be imported from Excel, like this:
SELECT table.column FROM table WHERE column="for example"42-3
So, the column consists varchar type variables formed with few numbers then "-" and then one number. To Excel I write for example 42-3 and macro should find every row with 42-3 from that table.
I think somehow I should convert it or take it apart when I could only search by numbers but I don't know how to do that when there is - in the variable.
EDIT:
so, in my SQL table I have a first column where are varchar variables 42-1,42-1,42-2,45-1,46-1... second column I have numbers 1,5,11,3,1,6,2... third column I have amounts 300,52 , 200,10 , 712,31 , 0,44... I should make a search with WHERE command for for example WHERE column1=42-1
I can write this "42-1" straight from excel as string format so that is not a problem, only that the character type is in varchar format and consists - so I can not convert it to integer.
Try using '%' operator
Select * from tableName where column1 like value1+'%'
I have a pipe delimited file that is too large to open in Excel. I'm trying to import this file into MSSQL using the import wizard in SSMS.
Normally when I do this, I open the file in Excel and use an array function =MAX(LEN(An:Annnn)) to get the max length of each column. Then I use that to specify the size of each field in my table.
This file is too large to open in Excel and SQL doesn't check all of the data to give an accurate suggestion (I think it's a crazy small sample like 200 records).
Anyone have a solution to this (I'm not opposed to doing something in Linux especially if it's free).
Thanks in advance for any help.
When I import text data into a database, typically I first read the data into a staging table where are the columns are long-enough character fields (say varchar(8000)).
Then, I load from the staging table into the final table:
create table RealTable (
RealTableId int identity(1, 1) primary key,
Column1 int,
Column2 datetime,
Column3 varchar(12),
. . .
);
insert into RealTable(<all columns but id>)
select (case when column1 not like '[^0-9]' then cast(column1 as int) end),
(case when isdate(column2) = 1 then cast(column2 as datetime),
. . .
I find it much easier to debug type issues inside the database rather than when inserting into the database.
I want to fetch autoincremented varchar values from SQL Server 2008 into a textbox in asp.net in pageload event.
Suppose I have a column trn_no, data type varchar. If the 1st value inserted manually in the table, like T100, then how would I get the value T101 in the textbox in pageload.
please help me.
If you want to have alphanumeric values in key then use following sql to get last inserted id +1.
SELECT 'T'
+ Cast(Max(Substring(trn_no, 2, Len(trn_no)-1) + 1 ) AS varchar(15))
FROM table
Change Varchar(15) as per possible max length