[RESOLVED] URGENT: How do I update a database column if I can't see it all?

[MMock]

I have been given an hour to work on this problem which I thought would be easy, but I don't understand where my data is in order to update it. Here is what's happening.

We generate letters to our customers using our web application and some of the body of the letter is in a database table. There is a column called txt which is 4096 bytes. This is what I need to update. But I don't know how to see this column. When I run a query in query analyzer it must stop at some limit because the string is truncated. When I view source of the asp page in which the letter is rendered, I see the complete contents. How do I update such a large column? And it's not straight text, it contains asp tags, like td and tr so I have to be very careful I get all the formatting correct.

Thanks!

[MMock]

Well, what I'm doing in the interim (that is, the interim of getting expert help from this forum) is writing an update command in an asp.net program (because the code is handy and I am interfacing with the database in this code already). The Select I just executed in the program returned the full data, so I am assuming I can modify it and update it back to the db. Unless I hear a better idea in time... Thanks.

[MMock]

I'm almost there - I have that infamous problem where I want my SQL string to contain an apostrophe which is being intrepreted as end-of-string...

[riteshjain1982]

I'm almost there - I have that infamous problem where I want my SQL string to contain an apostrophe which is being intrepreted as end-of-string...

would be better to use parameterized query

[MMock]

Naw, I got it.

Thanks though.

[brucevde]

In QA - Tools -> Options -> Results Tab
Set the Maximum Characters Per Column value.

When I need to update large text columns in QA, I usually use

Set Quoted_Identifier Off

The above allows you to use double quotes to delimit strings, eg..

Declare @Text varchar(8000)
Set @Text = "You can now use single quotes ' in this string ' "
Update Table Set Field = @Text

[MMock]

Great, thanks brucevde. I will play around with this later so next time I'll be able to use it right away. I didn't know about the quotes, that you could change them!

[Clanguage]

Declare @Text varchar(8000)
Set @Text = "You can now use single quotes ' in this string ' "
Update Table Set Field = @Text

Cool tip.

[MMock]

In QA - Tools -> Options -> Results Tab
Set the Maximum Characters Per Column value.

When I need to update large text columns in QA, I usually use

Set Quoted_Identifier Off

The above allows you to use double quotes to delimit strings, eg..

Declare @Text varchar(8000)
Set @Text = "You can now use single quotes ' in this string ' "
Update Table Set Field = @Text

Agreed. I tried this out and it worked perfectly. This is very useful to know, thanks again for taking the time to help!