"Sid Price" wrote:

> I have an application that needs to add a column to one of its database
> tables. I am doing this with the "ALTER TABLE" command and setting the new
> column to have a width of 80. The query looks like this:
>
>             DBCommand.CommandText = "ALTER TABLE " & strTableName & " ADD "
> & strColumnName & " char(" & iColumnSize & ")"
>             DBCommand.ExecuteNonQuery()
>
> Later the new column in the table may have data assigned into the new
> column. When this is done the data entered into the column is always 80
> chars long regardless of the actual string length. This is not the behavior
> we see if we add the column in Access and enter text in the new field. I
> have examined the table design in Access and do not see any difference
> between this column and other text columns except for the length (80 instead
> of 50 in other columns).
>
> Is there some attribute that needs to be set on the new column so that the
> entry is not space-filled to the maximum column size?
>
> Thanks,
> Sid.
>
>
>

"Kerry Moorman" <KerryMoor***@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:E17EA33A-9FD0-4340-AE90-7680C6DDA67D@microsoft.com...
> Sid,
>
> If this is an Access database then I think you need to use the "Text" data
> type, not the "Char" data type to get a variable length column with a
> maximum
> size.
>
> If this is SQL Server then I think you need one of the "VARCHAR" data
> types.
>
> Kerry Moorman
>
>
> "Sid Price" wrote:
>
>> I have an application that needs to add a column to one of its database
>> tables. I am doing this with the "ALTER TABLE" command and setting the
>> new
>> column to have a width of 80. The query looks like this:
>>
>>             DBCommand.CommandText = "ALTER TABLE " & strTableName & " ADD
>> "
>> & strColumnName & " char(" & iColumnSize & ")"
>>             DBCommand.ExecuteNonQuery()
>>
>> Later the new column in the table may have data assigned into the new
>> column. When this is done the data entered into the column is always 80
>> chars long regardless of the actual string length. This is not the
>> behavior
>> we see if we add the column in Access and enter text in the new field. I
>> have examined the table design in Access and do not see any difference
>> between this column and other text columns except for the length (80
>> instead
>> of 50 in other columns).
>>
>> Is there some attribute that needs to be set on the new column so that
>> the
>> entry is not space-filled to the maximum column size?
>>
>> Thanks,
>> Sid.
>>
>>
>>