Determine ANSI_PADDING status in TSQL

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Determine ANSI_PADDING status in TSQL

Mr. Cursor

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Points: 385
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July 27, 2012 at 2:42 am

#261638

Hello SQL Gurus.
I have a situation where the production databases have ANSI_PADDING on. This is what I want, as for reasons best know to the users they need to store A [Space][Space] as exactly that.
Yesterday I found that the UAT databases have ANSI_PADDING off. This is producing inconsistent test data, as you can imagine.
I was hoping that A/P might be visible on INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLUMNS, and I would be able to set it in code. But so far I haven't been able to find how to do this.
Please can someone tell me what level ANSI_PADDING is stored - Column, Table or DB... and furthermore, what is the best way to find this out in code?
Thanks!

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Kingston Dhasian SSCoach Points: 19799 More actions · Answer 1

SELECTSESSIONPROPERTY('ANSI_PADDING')

Kingston Dhasian

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Mr. Cursor Old Hand Points: 385 More actions · Answer 2

Mr. Cursor

Old Hand

Points: 385

July 27, 2012 at 7:31 am

#1518506

Many thanks 🙂

Lokesh Vij SSChampion Points: 10836 More actions · Answer 3

For checking ANSI_PADDING on columns:

SELECT name column_name,

CASE is_ansi_padded

WHEN 1 THEN 'On'

ELSE 'Off'

AS [ANSI_PADDING]

FROM sys.all_columns

WHERE object_id = object_id(<table name>)

~ Lokesh Vij

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Lokesh Vij SSChampion Points: 10836 More actions · Answer 4

To further add (SQL Server 2012 BOL):

In a future version of Microsoft SQL Server ANSI_PADDING will always be ON and any applications that explicitly set the option to OFF will produce an error. Avoid using this feature in new development work, and plan to modify applications that currently use this feature.

Source: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms187403.aspx

~ Lokesh Vij

Guidelines for quicker answers on T-SQL question[/url]
Guidelines for answers on Performance questions

Link to my Blog Post --> www.SQLPathy.com[/url]

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Lynn Pettis SSC Guru Points: 442467 More actions · Answer 5

Lokesh Vij (7/27/2012)
For checking ANSI_PADDING on columns:
SELECT name column_name,
CASE is_ansi_padded
WHEN 1 THEN 'On'
ELSE 'Off'
AS [ANSI_PADDING]
FROM sys.all_columns
WHERE object_id = object_id(<table name>)

Or:

SELECT

name column_name,

CASE is_ansi_padded

WHEN 1 THEN 'On'

ELSE 'Off'

AS [ANSI_PADDING]

FROM

sys.columns

WHERE

object_id = object_id(<schema.tablename>)

Lokesh Vij SSChampion Points: 10836 More actions · Answer 6

Lynn Pettis (7/27/2012)
Lokesh Vij (7/27/2012)
For checking ANSI_PADDING on columns:
SELECT name column_name,
CASE is_ansi_padded
WHEN 1 THEN 'On'
ELSE 'Off'
AS [ANSI_PADDING]
FROM sys.all_columns
WHERE object_id = object_id(<table name>)
Or:
SELECT
name column_name,
CASE is_ansi_padded
WHEN 1 THEN 'On'
ELSE 'Off'
AS [ANSI_PADDING]
FROM
sys.columns
WHERE
object_id = object_id(<schema.tablename>)

Great Lynn, I missed that.

Thanks 🙂

~ Lokesh Vij

Guidelines for quicker answers on T-SQL question[/url]
Guidelines for answers on Performance questions

Link to my Blog Post --> www.SQLPathy.com[/url]

Follow me @Twitter

Buck-293246 SSC Journeyman Points: 76 More actions · Answer 7

just FYI that "is_ansi_padded" column in sys.all_columns will show as 0 if the column type is not a char, binary or variant column. If you are trying to find all columns with the ansi_padding where it actually matters you may want to limit it to those columns with something like the below.

SELECTt.name as [table_name],

c.name as [column_name],

ty.[name] as [column_data_type],

CASEWHEN c.is_ansi_padded = 1

THEN 'On'

ELSE 'Off'

END as [ansi_padding]

FROM sys.all_columns c

inner join sys.tables t

on (c.object_id = t.object_id)

inner join sys.types ty

on (c.system_type_id = ty.system_type_id)

wheret.name not like 'sys%'

and t.name not like 'MS_%'

and ty.name in ('char','varchar','binary','sql_variant','nvarchar','nchar')

order by t.name

ScottPletcher SSC Guru Points: 100942 More actions · Answer 8

Fwiw, I prefer the a different way to check the current ansi / connection settings, using:

@@OPTIONS

I actually use a table of config values so the code is more readable, but here's the direct value comparison method:

IF @@OPTIONS & 16 > 0

PRINT 'ANSI_PADDING is ON'

ELSE

PRINT 'ANSI_PADDING is OFF'

IF @@OPTIONS & 16384 > 0

PRINT 'XACT_ABORT is ON'

ELSE

PRINT 'XACT_ABORT is OFF'

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