line breaks lost in sql server - sql-server

Question

I am entering error information into an ErrorLog table in my database. I have a utility class to do this:
ErrorHandler.Error("Something has broken!!\n\nDescription");
This works fine. However, when I try to access this table, the line breaks no longer seem to be present.
If I SELECT the table:
SELECT * from ErrorLog ORDER BY ErrorDate
there are no line breaks present in the log. This is kind of expected, as line breaks in one-line rows would break the formatting. However, If I copy the data out, the line break characters have been lost, and the data is all on one line.
How do I get line breaks in data at the end of my query when I put line breaks in? I don't know if the string has been stripped of line breaks when it enters the table, or if the viewer in SQL Server Management Studio has stripped out the line breaks.
The data type of the column into which error messages are put is nvarchar(Max), if that makes a difference.
EDIT: Unexpectedly, Pendri's solution didn't work.
Here is an excerpt of the string just before it passes into the SQL server:
POST /ipn/paymentResponse.ashx?installation=272&msgType=result HTTP/1.0\n\rContent-Length: 833\n\rContent-Type:
And here is the same string when I extract it from the grid viewer in SQL Server Management Studio:
POST /ipn/paymentResponse.ashx?installation=272&msgType=result HTTP/1.0 Content-Length: 833 Content-Type:
The place where the line break should be has been double spaced.
Any ideas?

Answer 1

No need to replace string input\output, you need just pick up correct option:
Tools -> Options...
> Query Results
> SQL Server
> Results to Grid
set "Retain CR\LF on copy or save" to true.
And don't forget to restart your management studio!
according Charles Gagnon answer

Answer 2

SSMS replaces linebreaks with spaces in the grid output. If you use Print to print the values (will go to your messages tab) then the carriage returns will be displayed there if they were stored with the data.
Example:
SELECT 'ABC' + CHAR(13) + CHAR(10) + 'DEF'
PRINT 'ABC' + CHAR(13) + CHAR(10) + 'DEF'
The first will display in a single cell in the grid without breaks, the second will print with a break to the messages pane.
A quick and easy way to print the values would be to select into a variable:
DECLARE #x varchar(100);
SELECT #x = 'ABC' + CHAR(13) + CHAR(10) + 'DEF';
PRINT #x;

Answer 3

Update a couple years later.
As described here, one solution to preserve viewing linebreaks in SSMS is to convert the output to XML:
SELECT * FROM (
SELECT * from ErrorLog ORDER BY ErrorDate
) AS [T(x)] FOR XML PATH
Fortunately, if you have SSMS 2012, this is no longer an issue, as line breaks are retained.

Answer 4

I echo David C's answer, except you should use the "TYPE" keyword so that you can click to open the data in a new window.
Note that any unsafe XML characters will not work well with either of our solutions.
Here is a proof of concept:
DECLARE #ErrorLog TABLE (ErrorText varchar(500), ErrorDate datetime);
INSERT INTO #ErrorLog (ErrorText, ErrorDate) VALUES
('This is a long string with a' + CHAR(13) + CHAR(10) + 'line break.', getdate()-1),
('Another long string with' + CHAR(13) + CHAR(10) + '<another!> line break.', getdate()-2);
SELECT
(
SELECT ErrorText AS '*'
FOR XML PATH(''), TYPE
) AS 'ErrorText',
ErrorDate
FROM #ErrorLog
ORDER BY ErrorDate;
I can confirm that the line breaks are preserved when copying out of a grid in SSMS 2012.

Answer 5

try using char(13) + char(10) instead of '\n' in your string (define a constant and concatenate to your sql)

Answer 6

Another simple solution is to click the "results to text" button in SSMS. Its not super clean, but gives you visibility to line breaks with about half a second of work.

Answer 7

For SQL Server 2008, there is no provision to set "Retain CR\LF on copy or save" to true.
For this issue, what I did is that, replace char(13) with "\r" and replace char(10) with "\n" like below.
REPLACE(REPlACE([COLUMN_NAME],char(13), '\r'),CHAR(10),'\n')
And in the code-behind again I've replaced "\r\n" with a break tag.
I worked out in this way as there was no option provided in SQL 2008 as mentioned above. This answer might be an alternative though.
Thanks