MSSQL Substring Syntax for Limiting Company Name Lengths

[Nathan]

Some time ago I was reading data from a flat .txt file and inserting it into my database. My table in the database was only setup to handle 40 characters for the company or person's last name. If it was a company some would be longer than 40 and my job would fail. I chose to fix it with the substring function in MSSQL.

 

Table: Debtor

Field: RespLName

 

My original code:

select case when ltrim(rtrim(RespLName)) is null then P.LastName else ltrim(rtrim(RespLName)) end as LastName
from Debtor

 

After adding the substring function:

select case when ltrim(rtrim(substring(RespLName,0,40))) is null then P.LastName else ltrim(rtrim(substring(RespLName,0,40))) end as LastName
from Debtor

[__Darknite]

Nice one Nathan!

 

As a suggestion that could be made simpler:

 

select IsNull(LTrim(RTrim(SubString(RespLName,0,40))),P.LastName)
from Debtor

Edited May 23, 2012 by __Darknite

[Nathan]

Ah, good call, didn't even think about isnull, guess that would be more efficient than the case statement.

 

Thanks!