T-SQL Tuesday #86 : What The Heck Is Wrong With My String/Binary Data?

This month’s T-SQL Tuesday is hosted by Brent Ozar (b/t), and is about those wonderful Connect requests that we want fixed/added in SQL Server.

Aaron Bertrand (b/t) reminded me of one of my all-time favorites. You know when you started working with SQL Server and you’d get error messages that you couldn’t figure out? One of my favorites was ‘String or binary data would be truncated.’ Technically, I realized that some data that I was trying to insert was too long, but there was no clue as to which column. Better yet, you aren’t even able to narrow down your search by data type. So that error, when you’re performing some bulk load operation, is enough to drive a sane person crazy. I would hate to try and figure out how many hours I’ve spent with just that error.

The Connect item that I’m promoting today is Connect #339410 : Please fix the “String or binary data would be truncated” message to give the column name. This Connect item was opened in 2008 and has 1,328 upvotes. If we can create virtual realities, we should be able to add a column name to an error message. Help us Microsoft, you’re our only hope.

Lori Edwards

Lori (@loriedwards) has been with SentryOne since 2013, and has recently transitioned from her role as Senior Solutions Engineer to Training Manager. She is responsible for all learning strategy and architecture, including building, executing, measuring, and evaluating training for SentryOne. Lori is also currently serving as a Director at Large for PASS.

Lori shares tips and tidbits for DBAs picked up over years of working as a DBA, as well as stories about her job here. Whether you are a new DBA who wants to learn or someone interested in learning about what it is like to work for SentryOne, be sure to check out Lori’s blog.