Question

I am using SQL Server 2000. When I try to update a column of type varchar(20) with a text value of more than 10 characters, I get an error

String or binary data would be truncated.

Why is it? varchar(20) should accept a text of up to 20 characters… why can I not update it with text with more than 10 characters?

Answer 1

If your string variable is declared as nvarchar(n), then it will take up twice as much space as a varchar(n)

10 x 2 = 20

So, anything greater than 10 double-byte chars will not fit into a varchar(20)

If you are inserting/updating into a column of type varchar, also declare your string variable as varchar with the appropriate size.

declare @str varchar(20)