"String or binary data would be truncated" and field specifications

Question

Hi all,
i have "String or binary data would be truncated" error when i try to execute an insert statment.
can i find witch field is affected by this error? (for return it to the user)
thank's all

Answer 1

As far as I am aware, there's no way to determine which column's length has been exceeded.
You should add code into your stored procedure to check the lengths of variables before inserting their values into your tables, raising an error if necessary - see the example below.
Again I stress that it would be better to modify the client application's code to either warn the user or to limit the number of characters they can enter into a field.
Chris
Code Snippet
--This batch will fail with the SQL Server error message
DECLARE @MyTable TABLE (MyID INT IDENTITY(1, 1), MyValue VARCHAR(10))
DECLARE @MyParameter VARCHAR(100)
--Create a string of 52 chars in length
SET @MyParameter = REPLICATE('Z', 52)
INSERT INTO @MyTable(MyValue)
VALUES (@MyParameter)
GO
--This batch will fail with a custom error message
DECLARE @MyTable TABLE (MyID INT IDENTITY(1, 1), MyValue VARCHAR(10))
DECLARE @MyParameter VARCHAR(100)
--Create a string of 52 chars in length
SET @MyParameter = REPLICATE('Z', 52)
IF LEN(@MyParameter) > 10
BEGIN
     RAISERROR('You attempted to insert too many characters into MyTable.MyValue.', 16, 1)
RETURN
END
ELSE
BEGIN
     INSERT INTO @MyTable(MyValue)
     VALUES (@MyParameter)
END
GO