Formatting Select Columns

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Formatting Select Columns

MJ-227602

SSC Rookie

Points: 39
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April 22, 2005 at 9:28 am

#164245

Hi All!
Can anyone give me an assit with correctly formatting my column calls in a select statement?
Details:
Lets say I got a column in a table called SalesName with a length of 50. Well, in my select statement I want to rename the column and return only 25 positions from the field. How do I format the TSQL syntax for this?
I could only get as far as the following without throwing an error.
select SalesName "Name" from CommERV where ProcessDate = '1/1/05'
and RevDate = '1/1/05'
and TIN = '2042416'
TIA!
-MJ

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Dinakar Nethi-176633 SSCarpal Tunnel Points: 4689 More actions · Answer 1

SELECT

SUBSTRING(SalesName,1,25) As Name

FROM

CommERV

WHERE

ProcessDate = '1/1/05'

AND RevDate = '1/1/05'

AND TIN = '2042416'

******************
Dinakar Nethi
Life is short. Enjoy it.
******************

Jeff Moden SSC Guru Points: 1004406 More actions · Answer 2

Here's a couple of other ways...

SELECT

LEFT(SalesName,25) As Name

FROM

CommERV

WHERE

ProcessDate = '1/1/05'

AND RevDate = '1/1/05'

AND TIN = '2042416'

SELECT

CAST(SalesName AS VARCHAR(25)) As Name

FROM

CommERV

WHERE

ProcessDate = '1/1/05'

AND RevDate = '1/1/05'

AND TIN = '2042416'

The latter of the two actually does a better job of limiting the column length for output purposes. I dunno if LEFT is any faster than SUBSTRING but it's less to type.

--Jeff Moden

RBAR is pronounced "ree-bar" and is a "Modenism" for Row-By-Agonizing-Row.
First step towards the paradigm shift of writing Set Based code:
________Stop thinking about what you want to do to a ROW... think, instead, of what you want to do to a COLUMN.

Change is inevitable... Change for the better is not.

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