Chris Cathers

  • Interests: SQL, Of course, & Programing, writing, and reviewiong missions for the Video Game Operation FlashPoint.

SQLServerCentral Article

Custom String Functions

SQL Server's Data Transformation Services (DTS) is a fantastic tool for importing data from any type of source. However even with this tool, you sometimes need more flexibility than it appears to have, especially if the data formats are unknown far enough in advance. New author Chris Cathers has developed a technique that allows him to be extremely flexible without causing too many headaches down the road.

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2004-10-18

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Question of the Day

Using CHOOSE()

We have this code that sets some status values and then queries them using the CHOOSE() function in SQL Server 2025.

CREATE TABLE Status
(
    StatusID INT,
    StatusDescription VARCHAR(20)
);
GO
INSERT dbo.Status
(
    StatusID,
    StatusDescription
)
VALUES
(0, 'Uncategorized'),
(1, 'Active'),
(2, 'Inactive'),
(3, 'Temp');

GO
SELECT CHOOSE(StatusID, 'Unknown', 'Active', 'Inactive', 'Temporary')
FROM Status;
When the SELECT runs, what is returned?

See possible answers