List all SQL columns with max length AND greatest length
Thanks for the suggestions. I have come up with the following solution. It gets me the data i need but would be interested to see if it can be made more efficient.
declare @results table
(
ID varchar(36),
TableName varchar(250),
ColumnName varchar(250),
DataType varchar(250),
MaxLength varchar(250),
Longest varchar(250),
SQLText varchar(250)
)
INSERT INTO @results(ID,TableName,ColumnName,DataType,MaxLength,Longest,SQLText)
SELECT
NEWID(),
Object_Name(c.object_id),
c.name,
t.Name,
case
when t.Name != 'varchar' Then 'NA'
when c.max_length = -1 then 'Max'
else CAST(c.max_length as varchar)
end,
'NA',
'SELECT Max(Len(' + c.name + ')) FROM ' + OBJECT_SCHEMA_NAME(c.object_id) + '.' + Object_Name(c.object_id)
FROM
sys.columns c
INNER JOIN
sys.types t ON c.system_type_id = t.system_type_id
WHERE
c.object_id = OBJECT_ID('MyTable')
DECLARE @id varchar(36)
DECLARE @sql varchar(200)
declare @receiver table(theCount int)
DECLARE length_cursor CURSOR
FOR SELECT ID, SQLText FROM @results WHERE MaxLength != 'NA'
OPEN length_cursor
FETCH NEXT FROM length_cursor
INTO @id, @sql
WHILE @@FETCH_STATUS = 0
BEGIN
INSERT INTO @receiver (theCount)
exec(@sql)
UPDATE @results
SET Longest = (SELECT theCount FROM @receiver)
WHERE ID = @id
DELETE FROM @receiver
FETCH NEXT FROM length_cursor
INTO @id, @sql
END
CLOSE length_cursor
DEALLOCATE length_cursor
SELECT
TableName,
ColumnName,
DataType,
MaxLength,
Longest
FROM
@results
This is something I use to profile data that might be helpful. Just change "YOUR TABLE NAME" to your table name. It is meant to show you where columns can be trimmed.
DECLARE @YourTableName sysname;
DECLARE @sql nvarchar(MAX) = ''
SET @YourTableName = YOUR TABLE NAME
CREATE TABLE #resultsTable (columnName varchar(100), columnLargestValueInData int, columnMaxLength int)
DECLARE @whileIter int = 1
DECLARE @whileTotal int
SELECT @whileTotal = COUNT(*) FROM sys.columns c
INNER JOIN
sys.types t ON c.user_type_id = t.user_type_id
WHERE
c.object_id = OBJECT_ID(@YourTableName)
-- print 'whileTotal: ' + CONVERT(VARCHAR,@whileTotal) -- used for testing
WHILE @whileIter <= @whileTotal
BEGIN
SELECT @sql = N'INSERT INTO #resultsTable (columnName, columnLargestValueInData, columnMaxLength) SELECT ''' + sc.name + ''' AS columnName, max(len([' + sc.name + '])), ' + CONVERT(varchar,sc.max_length) + ' FROM [' + t.name + ']'
FROM sys.tables AS t
INNER JOIN sys.columns AS sc ON t.object_id = sc.object_id
INNER JOIN sys.types AS st ON sc.system_type_id = st.system_type_id
WHERE column_id = @whileIter
AND t.name = @YourTableName
AND st.name IN ('char', 'varchar', 'nchar', 'nvarchar')
PRINT @sql
exec sp_executesql @sql
SET @whileIter += 1
END
SELECT * FROM #resultsTable
TRUNCATE TABLE #resultsTable
DROP TABLE #resultsTable