Steve, methinks this is a badly chosen topic today. Keep in mind that this is a global community focused on SQL Server, not economics or politics of one single country....

This is merely a presentational issue that you really should handle at the client.

Mindy,

this is a very nice homepage you have. I like especially this gallery:

http://www.stampola.com/asp/gallerytype.asp?gallerytype=14 

Is this the same question as on SQL Server Performance.com?

http://www.sommarskog.se/error-handling-II.html

http://www.sommarskog.se/error-handling-I.html

offer a good insight on error handling.

Actually rereading the thread and the "best" advise here is to split numbers from strings into two columns. What you describe is indeed...

http://msdn.microsoft.com/sql/default.aspx?pull=/library/en-us/dnsql2k/html/sqlbackend.asp

http://www.support.microsoft.com/?scid=kb;en-us;237980

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;884457

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;241743

should get you going. A search here in the fora might also be helpful.

PIggy-backing on Julian. Error 823 usually indicates hardware problems. The usual advise here is to check hardware and restore from the last good known backup

Why not have a bit of fun with the vendor and tell him, he should explain his thinking here?

When you look at BOL...

See if this helps: http://www.sommarskog.se/arrays-in-sql.html

Please post some sample data.

Are the numbers always at the beginning, somewhere in between or at the end of the string?

You have seem to misunderstood me. The UNION ALL I only use to fill my sample table. The SELECT is the important thing for you.

CREATE TABLE #showme

(

 NumberID INT

 ,...

DBCC SETINSTANCE is undocumented and basically only the underlying call behind the sp_user_counter procs.

See if this provides additional information:

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/sql/2000/maintain/sqlIObasics.mspx

Thanks! I was looking for 64 in your answer.

OKay, guessing at the DDL, here's one possible way

CREATE TABLE #showme

(

 NumberID INT

 , Feature VARCHAR(20)

)

INSERT INTO #showme

SELECT 123456,'1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9'

UNION ALL

SELECT 123457,'5,6,8,10,12'

CREATE TABLE #showme2

(

 FeatureID INT

 , [Description] VARCHAR(30)

)

INSERT INTO #showme2

SELECT 1,'Description1'

UNION ALL

SELECT 2,'Description3'

SELECT...