char type in MS SQL

Dear All,

I am new to MS SQL. One VB application that I need to maintain using it.
There is one problem reported but I couldn't explain: one field is declared
as Char (20), but the application seems able to insert a string with length
even 30. There is no character truncatd when retrieved neither.

However, I cannot simulate the case in the MSSQL database manager. When I executed a SQL script to insert, I was simply not allowed to do so.

Any explanation to the sDid anyone encounter same thing before?
Thanks for any hint.

RegardsMy first thought is that you may not be looking in the right place for something (either the column size or the data entered). You are right that normally trying to put 30 characters in a 20 character slot will result in an error. Does the VB script have "on error resume next"? Can you disect the VB script enough to see the insert statement itself? Post that insert statement and the result of sp_help tablename, if you can.|||Hi,

Thanks for the help. Below is the piece of codes, while t1_id was declared as CHAR(20) NOT NULL but a string with length 30 could be inserted and retrieved.

----------------------
On Error GoTo errors:
Dim conn As RDO.rdoConnection
Set conn = mrdoConnection.Connection

sqlStr = "INSERT INTO t1 (t1_id,t1_name) values ('" & s1 & "', '" & s2 & "')"
conn.Execute sqlStr

errors:
MsgBox err.Description
If Not conn Is Nothing Then
conn.RollbackTrans
conn.Close
End If
----------------------|||Must be using the winzip datatype.

create table test1 (col1 char(20))

insert into test1 values
('123456789012345678901234567890')

Server: Msg 8152, Level 16, State 9, Line 1
String or binary data would be truncated.
The statement has been terminated.

Even if there was something (connection option of some sort) preventing you from getting an error returned, you would not be able to retrieve the value. When you insert the value, what do you get from this?

select * from t1

Here, I am assuming that t1 is some sort of permanent entity that is not being dropped and recreated for every run.