Copy pasting SQL code changes some symbols

Question

Copy pasting SQL code changes some symbols

Koen Verbeeck

SSC Guru

Points: 259085
More actions
April 4, 2019 at 10:52 am

#2765017
When copy-pasting some code from this site to another tool, e.g. SSMS, it's possible some symbols are changed.
For example:
comments are transformed into hyphens. -- becomes —
single quote become a "smart quote": ' becomes ‘
edit: apparently the symbols are also changed when inputting the text into a post. Probably some HTML issue?
- This topic was modified 5 years, 1 month ago by Koen Verbeeck.
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Steve Jones - SSC Editor SSC Guru Points: 734564 More actions · Answer 1

Test posting here frmo SSMS with various code. I'll paste below, highlight, and click "insert/edit code sample"

ALTER PROCEDURE [dbo].[SendMonthlyNotifications]
-- this is a comment
AS
BEGIN
DECLARE cur CURSOR LOCAL FAST_FORWARD FOR
SELECT MNR.email, MNR.name
FROM dbo.MonthlyNotificationRecipients AS MNR
ORDER BY MNR.name;

DECLARE @name NVARCHAR(200) = 'someemail@somedomain.sometld';
DECLARE @email NVARCHAR(200);

OPEN cur;

Now I'll click teh button and paste in there

ALTER PROCEDURE [dbo].[SendMonthlyNotifications]
-- this is a comment
AS
BEGIN
  DECLARE cur CURSOR LOCAL FAST_FORWARD FOR
    SELECT MNR.email, MNR.name
      FROM dbo.MonthlyNotificationRecipients AS MNR
     ORDER BY MNR.name;

  DECLARE @name NVARCHAR(200) = 'someemail@somedomain.sometld';
  DECLARE @email NVARCHAR(200);

  OPEN cur;

Steve Jones - SSC Editor SSC Guru Points: 734564 More actions · Answer 2

I don't see this behavior, Win 10, Chrome. I suspect there are some client side things going on for some users.

Koen Verbeeck SSC Guru Points: 259085 More actions · Answer 3

I think it happens when you're not using the code block, but rather inserting the code directly in the message body.

Try typing the single line comment: - - (but without the space).

Need an answer? No, you need a question
My blog at https://sqlkover.com.
MCSE Business Intelligence - Microsoft Data Platform MVP

Solomon Rutzky SSCoach Points: 16430 More actions · Answer 4

Koen: some of this might be related to behavior I have documented here:

MAJOR DATA LOSS ISSUE TO FIX ASAP: code in code block treated as standard HTML

But, to be fair to the SSC.com team: I don't think that one should expect that code existing outside of a code block will remain untouched. This is part of why we have code blocks, not just to apply nice formatting, but also as a way to declare certain elements on the page as "please don't alter / process". So yes, I would fully expect that two hyphens with no space between will be translated into an — or something similar.

Take care, Solomon..

This reply was modified 5 years, 1 month ago by Solomon Rutzky.

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