CODEWITHSUNDEEP
sql-server-2008compression
juergen d
juergen d

Reputation: 204746

Compress text in SQL

I got a multi-use SQL table in my SQL Server 2008 database. It can store only 100 characters as value.

Now I want to store a value in it that has more than 100 characters. Is it possible to zip or compress a text with SQL Server functionality?

Upvotes: 2

Views: 418

Answers (1)

marc_s
marc_s

Reputation: 754348

If your column is defined as VARCHAR(100), it can hold a maximum of 100 characters. There's no "magic" or "compression" that makes this go away.

Yes, SQL Server has text compression - to reduce the disk space used. But if the column is limited to 100 characters, it can store no more than 100 characters.

If you need more - you need to define a column with a larger capacity. There's no other solution.

It's very easy to change a column's datatype, too - so if you need to, you should be able to just issue a SQL statement like:

ALTER TABLE dbo.YourTable ALTER COLUMN YourColumn VARCHAR(150)

and now your column can store up to 150 characters. This is a non-destructive change, e.g. existing data will not be affected (not wiped out or deleted).

Upvotes: 2

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