Question

I have this SQL Query that is not comparing properly so I commented it out the WHERE clause. When returning the AF.ActivityNote it always has 2 spaces after it no matter if I do RTRIM on it or not. I think those spaces are the issue that wont let the commented WHERE clause to properly match the string against userfield33.

  SELECT CAST(UF.UserField33 AS NVARCHAR) , RTRIM(CAST(AF.ActivityNote AS NVARCHAR))
        FROM [BCMTEST01].[dbo].[ActivityContacts] as AC INNER JOIN [BCMTEST01].[dbo].[ActivityFullView] as AF
            ON AC.ActivityID = AF.ActivityID INNER JOIN [BCMTEST01].[dbo].[OpportunityExportView] as OP
            ON AC.ContactID = OP.ContactServiceID INNER JOIN [BCMTEST01].[dbo].[UserFields] as UF
            ON OP.ContactServiceID = UF.ContactServiceID
            WHERE ContactID = 8376
        --WHERE  RTRIM(CAST(UF.UserField33 AS NVARCHAR) = RTRIM(CAST(AF.ActivityNote AS NVARCHAR))
        ORDER BY ContactID ASC

Answer 1

First, you should always include the length when converting to nvarchar, varchar, char, and nchar. So use something like:

cast(uf.userfield33 as nvarchar(255)) -- or whatever length you like, so long as you have something

The last two characters are not spaces. Do something like:

select ascii(right( AF.ActivityNote, 1))

To see what the character value is. You can then use replace to get rid of it. Or, you can just chop off the last two characters (if that works for your application).

By the way, I am assuming you are using SQL Server based on the syntax of the query.

Here is an alternative where clause:

where (case when right(AF.ActivityNote, 2) = char(10)+CHar(13)
            then LEFT(AF.ActivityNote, LEN(AF.ActivityNote) - 2)
            else AF.ActivityNote
       end) = CAST(UF.UserField33 AS NVARCHAR(255)

I’m not a big fan of case statements in where clauses. I would actually put the logic in a subquery. Also, I might have the order of the 10/13 backwards.