How To Solve “SQL Truncation” using SQL

I recently wrote about how to resolve a SQL Truncation error with Excel.

Here’s how you can solve it with SQL.

The Code

SELECT
    MAX(LEN_ID) AS MAX_ID
  , MAX(LEN_EmployeeName) AS MAX_EmployeeName
FROM (
    SELECT 
        LEN(ID) AS LEN_ID
      , LEN(EmployeeName) AS LEN_EmployeeName
    FROM tblEmployeeList
) AS qryGetMax

The Explanation

• Query the necessary fields from the table(s) using the LEN function to find the length of each value
• Put that inside another query, and use the MAX function to get the maximum length of every instance
• Compare the results one-by-one to the table structure to see which field(s) in the SQL query results exceed the maximum number of characters allowed in the table.