Problems Concatenating Columns

microsoft.public.sqlserver.programming

17 Dec 2005 11:28 AM

Simon Harris

Hi All,

I am getting some rather strange results when concatenating columns.

Please see my inline comments below...

SELECT
'http://www.oursite.co.uk/scripts/prodview.asp?idproduct=' +
CAST(products.idProduct AS Char(4)) AS product_url,
('Replacement '
+
Case When CharIndex(';',Products.description) > 0 Then
Left(Products.description,CharIndex(';',Products.description)-1)
Else
Products.description
End
+
' for '
+
Case When CharIndex('[',allProducts.CatDescMake) > 0 Then
Left(allProducts.CatDescMake,CharIndex('[',allProducts.CatDescMake) - 1)
+'' -- If I dont add this empty string, the concatenation seems to stop
after this point (not so much of a problem, but why?)
Else
allProducts.CatDescMake + '' -- Ditto!
End
--+ allProducts.CatDescModel + products.description -- This fails, only
the
first column ends up in the concatenated column
+ products.description + allProducts.CatDescModel -- This works OK, both
columns are in the concatenated column
) AS name,
products.DescriptionLong as Description,
'http://www.oursite.co.uk/prodimages/' + products.imageURL as image_url,
products.Price as price
FROM Categories_Products
INNER JOIN allProducts ON Categories_Products.idCategory =
allProducts.CatIDModel
INNER JOIN products ON Categories_Products.idProduct = products.idProduct
WHERE products.idProduct IN (select idProduct from products where
description like '%;%')

Any help will be appreciated! :)

Simon.

PS: I know that string concatnation should be done on the
client/application
end, but ASP is not happy about doing with with the amount of records we
have (Times out) where as from what I have seen so far, SQL Server does
the
job ALOT faster!

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17 Dec 2005 12:02 PM

Mike Epprecht (SQL MVP)

Hi

Check that those columns you are having problems with do not contain nulls.

string + NULL results in NULL

You might need to add to your code ISNULL(column, '') replaces a null with
an empty string.

Regards
--------------------------------
Mike Epprecht, Microsoft SQL Server MVP
Zurich, Switzerland

IM: m***@epprecht.net

MVP Program: http://www.microsoft.com/mvp

Blog: http://www.msmvps.com/epprecht/

Show quote

"Simon Harris" <too-much-spam@makes-you-fat.com> wrote in message
news:eEeSzzvAGHA.3456@TK2MSFTNGP11.phx.gbl...
> Hi All,
>
> I am getting some rather strange results when concatenating columns.
>
> Please see my inline comments below...
>
> SELECT
> 'http://www.oursite.co.uk/scripts/prodview.asp?idproduct=' +
> CAST(products.idProduct AS Char(4)) AS product_url,
> ('Replacement '
> +
> Case When CharIndex(';',Products.description) > 0 Then
> Left(Products.description,CharIndex(';',Products.description)-1)
> Else
> Products.description
> End
> +
> ' for '
> +
> Case When CharIndex('[',allProducts.CatDescMake) > 0 Then
> Left(allProducts.CatDescMake,CharIndex('[',allProducts.CatDescMake) - 1)
> +'' -- If I dont add this empty string, the concatenation seems to stop
> after this point (not so much of a problem, but why?)
> Else
> allProducts.CatDescMake + '' -- Ditto!
> End
> --+ allProducts.CatDescModel + products.description -- This fails, only
> the
> first column ends up in the concatenated column
> + products.description + allProducts.CatDescModel -- This works OK, both
> columns are in the concatenated column
> ) AS name,
> products.DescriptionLong as Description,
> 'http://www.oursite.co.uk/prodimages/' + products.imageURL as image_url,
> products.Price as price
> FROM Categories_Products
> INNER JOIN allProducts ON Categories_Products.idCategory =
> allProducts.CatIDModel
> INNER JOIN products ON Categories_Products.idProduct = products.idProduct
> WHERE products.idProduct IN (select idProduct from products where
> description like '%;%')
>
> Any help will be appreciated! :)
>
> Simon.
>
> PS: I know that string concatnation should be done on the
> client/application
> end, but ASP is not happy about doing with with the amount of records we
> have (Times out) where as from what I have seen so far, SQL Server does
> the
> job ALOT faster!
>
>
> ----------------------------------------
> I am using the free version of SPAMfighter for private users.
> It has removed 2988 spam emails to date.
> Paying users do not have this message in their emails.
> Try www.SPAMfighter.com for free now!
>
>