Question

This seems like a trivial syntax issue that I’m unaware of. I would like to define a function on the lines of trimming some data based on the allowed limit for column.

Here’s some sample code that works.

DECLARE @value nvarchar(max) = ' Test string abc '
DECLARE @length integer = 10
DECLARE @trimValue nvarchar(max) = @value
SELECT @trimValue = LTRIM(RTRIM(CAST(@value AS nvarchar(10))))
SELECT @trimValue

returns ‘Test str’

Now I want to pass in that casting length dynamically. How can I do this?

 SELECT @trimValue = LTRIM(RTRIM(CAST(@value AS nvarchar(@length))))

Answer 1

you could use LEFT in this case since it is a string, otherwise you need to do it dynamically

DECLARE @value nvarchar(max) = ' Test string abc '
DECLARE @length integer = 10

DECLARE @trimValue nvarchar(max) = @value
SELECT @trimValue = LEFT(LTRIM(RTRIM(@value)),@length)
SELECT @trimValue