Bad error message

I just spent 4 hours of frustration, trying to debug a problem with SQL
2000. It was self-inflicted, as it turned out, but I could have fixed
the problem in 5 minutes instead of 4 hours if the @.#%@.#$% error
message:
"String or binary data would be truncated"
would give some CLUES! How about a field name, or even the data that
it's trying to put into the mystery field in some mystery table? And
why not tell me whether it's actually a string or binary data, not
lumping them both together. (I envision a mythical error message that
says "You have caused a numeric overflow, or underflow, or divide by
zero, or there's a key violation, or a trigger is not defined, or the
statement syntax is wrong." Which might be a perfectly correct but not-
helpful error message.)
I was convinced that I was trying to put a single character 'C' into a
field defined as Char(2), and I was tearing my hair out. Aaargh.
The actual Update statement was buried in the guts of a DTS transform,
but this isn't a DTS complaint, it's a SQL error message complaint.
When you try to put a null into a field that can't accept nulls, at
least the error message gives you the name of the field that you're
trying to update. That is infinitely more helpful than this stupid
truncation message. (And I don't want to turn warnings off; in this
case, I was trying to put the wrong value into a different field, so the
error was important -- but I wasn't being pointed to the right place.)
A little help from the error message would be nice.
Hmmm. I wonder if the new upcoming SQL does a better job. I'll have to
ask someone over there.
David WalkerYOu sure have to give us some mistery SQL Query or magic DDL to understand
whats going on, seems that one column is truncated.
HTH, Jens Suessmeyer.
http://www.sqlserver2005.de
--
"DWalker" <none@.none.com> schrieb im Newsbeitrag
news:OUBF6SnSFHA.3356@.TK2MSFTNGP12.phx.gbl...
>I just spent 4 hours of frustration, trying to debug a problem with SQL
> 2000. It was self-inflicted, as it turned out, but I could have fixed
> the problem in 5 minutes instead of 4 hours if the @.#%@.#$% error
> message:
> "String or binary data would be truncated"
> would give some CLUES! How about a field name, or even the data that
> it's trying to put into the mystery field in some mystery table? And
> why not tell me whether it's actually a string or binary data, not
> lumping them both together. (I envision a mythical error message that
> says "You have caused a numeric overflow, or underflow, or divide by
> zero, or there's a key violation, or a trigger is not defined, or the
> statement syntax is wrong." Which might be a perfectly correct but not-
> helpful error message.)
> I was convinced that I was trying to put a single character 'C' into a
> field defined as Char(2), and I was tearing my hair out. Aaargh.
> The actual Update statement was buried in the guts of a DTS transform,
> but this isn't a DTS complaint, it's a SQL error message complaint.
> When you try to put a null into a field that can't accept nulls, at
> least the error message gives you the name of the field that you're
> trying to update. That is infinitely more helpful than this stupid
> truncation message. (And I don't want to turn warnings off; in this
> case, I was trying to put the wrong value into a different field, so the
> error was important -- but I wasn't being pointed to the right place.)
> A little help from the error message would be nice.
> Hmmm. I wonder if the new upcoming SQL does a better job. I'll have to
> ask someone over there.
>
> David Walker|||David,
I agree that error less-informative messages as a pain to work with. Did you
consider posting to
sqlwish@.microsoft.com on this case?
Tibor Karaszi, SQL Server MVP
http://www.karaszi.com/sqlserver/default.asp
http://www.solidqualitylearning.com/|||I figured out my problem, the complaint is that the error message is not
very helpful. I was not looking for more assistance, I was just
complaining about the error message... But thanks!
David
"Jens Smeyer" <Jens@.Remove_this_For_Contacting.sqlserver2005.de> wrote
in news:#QWpPWnSFHA.1312@.TK2MSFTNGP14.phx.gbl:

> YOu sure have to give us some mistery SQL Query or magic DDL to
> understand whats going on, seems that one column is truncated.
> HTH, Jens Suessmeyer.
> --
> http://www.sqlserver2005.de
> --
> "DWalker" <none@.none.com> schrieb im Newsbeitrag
> news:OUBF6SnSFHA.3356@.TK2MSFTNGP12.phx.gbl...
>|||"Tibor Karaszi" <tibor_please.no.email_karaszi@.hotmail.nomail.com> wrote
in news:uzUDsVnSFHA.3712@.TK2MSFTNGP10.phx.gbl:

> David,
> I agree that error less-informative messages as a pain to work with.
> Did you consider posting to sqlwish@.microsoft.com on this case?
>
I will do that, thanks.
David|||ok. Gotit. :-)
"DWalker" <none@.none.com> schrieb im Newsbeitrag
news:O763lynSFHA.3176@.TK2MSFTNGP09.phx.gbl...
>I figured out my problem, the complaint is that the error message is not
> very helpful. I was not looking for more assistance, I was just
> complaining about the error message... But thanks!
> David
>
> "Jens Smeyer" <Jens@.Remove_this_For_Contacting.sqlserver2005.de> wrote
> in news:#QWpPWnSFHA.1312@.TK2MSFTNGP14.phx.gbl:
>
>