The funny thing is that inselect cast('This is a test' as varchar)the varchar size defaults to 30, so in this case the full string is returned.
That's probably tomorrow's question.
I looked at the MSDN reference, and it had the following line:
The SQL-2003 synonym for char is character.
What is SQL-2003?
Mattie
Yeah, I noticed that too. Probably what SQL - 2005 was supposed to be!
I also saw a new feature that I think I'll really like
Declare @i varchar(max)
Gives you a rather large text store without the text datatype's limitations? Cool.
Well, as long as we're being picky, it defaults to 50 when you're using EM to define a field too.
But, if you take the question literally as presented, the answer was correct. And that's all that really counts for a test.
Hi,
The BOL topic "Char and Varchar" says:
".....Remarks
When n is not specified in a data definition or variable declaration statement, the default length is 1. When n is not specified with the CAST function, the default length is 30...."
In the Enterprise Manager you do specify n. 50 is a suggested length. It does not let you to select nothing for n, posts a message that n must be from 1 to 8000. Enterprise Manager is a client application which may have any restrictions specified by its programmers (Microsoft in this case) where TSQL statements and its rules are applicable to server software SQL Server.
