Because in this case ALL the arguments are "untyped" nulls.

so

declare @a int

select coalesce(@a,null)

will retunr NULL (and not an error).

Mike

Sorry Ray, but if properly quote qualified quotes in the data are fine. Your example would become

"30""Oven/Range" - ie the embedded quote in the data gets doubled up.

Technically...

I think the critical point is that SQL Server is it is not stripping out anything.

The rules for string comparison in varchar are very precisely defined, if one is...

It may help if you describe what functions you need in the "formula".

If it is simply additive elements (ie a salary plus an "allowance" ) which is what it...

I am not sure of the precise rules for Oracles varchar2 - never did really work out why they had a 2 on the end when varchar was adequately defined...

That message is from SQL server AGENT stopping because it was told to. So I guess something or someone told the service to shut down, either via the services applet,...

Without the error message we are all guessing. Can you post the entire content

of the window with the error messages?

If you are running this package in the dev environment fine the "output" window and you should see the full text of the underlying error.

Also can you confirm if the...

I am not sure of the datatype of the column but would guess it is varchar(n) then this article should explain it..

http://decipherinfosys.wordpress.com/2007/02/15/ansi_padding-and-trailing-spaces-in-sql-server/

In brief with varchar comparisons the ansi...

Snap!

It would have been hard to get two answers closer...

Mike

use TOP 10

with an appropriate "order by" to give you the 10 you need.

The tricky bit may be working out what you mean by "last" if you do not...

It is not too easy to comment on a "stored procedure" when you have posted a number of separate statements rather than the actual stored proc.

From the general description you...

Simplest way is to restore the most recent backup of the db to another database, then re-insert the accidentally deleted rows.

Insert into .. select from is a very useful...

Various options - it runs as a Windows Service so the services applet in control panel is one way.

Or Net Stop MSSQLSERVER from a command prompt

or Shutdown command in...

I hope the following pounters may help:

Judging by the name of the stored proc you are calling it is not part of SQL Server, but something omeone has written on...