Question

I inherited some partially complete sql code that I can’t get to work.

it accesses multiple databases, so it first searches for proper database using a userID number, then inserts that database name into a query. the part i’m having a problem with (extremely abbreviated) is…

DECLARE @sql AS VARCHAR(8000)  
    SET @sql = 'INSERT INTO ['+@DatabaseName+'].dbo.[customer]  
                  ( -- containing about 200 columns. )  
                VALUES(...)'  
PRINT @sql  
EXEC(@sql)

i would get errors in the middle of a column name, sometimes saying it’s expecting a parenthesis or quote. i started deleting white space so that, ie, [first name],[last name] were on the same line and not two different lines and that would get me a little further down the query. i don’t have much more white spaces i can delete and i’m only just getting into the Values(…) portion of it. the weird thing is. i copy and pasted just the columns portion and put it into Word and it comes up as being only about 3,000 characters, including white space.

am i missing something?
if it means anything, i’m running microsoft sql server 2005, and using the sql server management studio for editing

thanks!

Answer 1

See here: SQL Server: When 8000 Characters Is Not Enough for a couple of solutions