Question:
I am using the ‘Execute’ to run an SQL statement.The sql is Microsoft SQL. The SQL is to ‘INSERT into table …SELECT …FROM TABLES…’. The select portion of the SQL has multiple columnsconcantinated together using the ‘&’ symbol so that I can insert into a table with only ONE large text column. My problem is that the concantination is causing the trailing blanks (spaces) to be eliminated,Thus smashing the column values right together. Example:
SQL=”INSERT INTO TABLE1 (RESULT_DATA) SELECT CITY & STATE & ZIP FROM MY_RELATIVES WHERE COUNTRY = ‘USA'”The results are: LACRESCENTMN54601
Desired Results: LACRESCENT MN 54601
What are the correct functions to force data to be a certain length?
Answer:
You should probably try using the RPAD function on the column. I believe that is the correct function to pad spaces on the end of a field. If that doesn’t work, you can always concatenate in a string of spaces between the fields. I know LPAD and RPAD work under Oracle, and I would imagine that there is an equivalent version for standard MS-SQL.
