Error, String or Binary Data Would Be Truncated When Trying to Insert

Error, String or Binary Data Would Be Truncated When Trying to Insert

I am running data.bat file with the following lines:

Rem Tis batch file will populate tables

cd\program files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL
osql -U sa -P Password -d MyBusiness -i c:\data.sql

The contents of the data.sql file is:

   insert Customers
            (CustomerID, CompanyName, Phone)
             Values('101','Southwinds','19126602729')

There are 8 more similar lines for adding records.

When I run this with start > run > cmd > c:\data.bat, I get this error message:

1>2>3>4>5>....<1 row affected>
Msg 8152, Level 16, State 4, Server SP1001, Line 1
string or binary data would be truncated.

<1 row affected>

<1 row affected>

<1 row affected>

<1 row affected>

<1 row affected>

<1 row affected>

Also, I am a newbie obviously, but what do Level #, and state # mean, and how do I look up error messages such as the one above: 8152?

1

19 Answers

From @gmmastros's answer

Whenever you see the message....

string or binary data would be truncated

Think to yourself... The field is NOT big enough to hold my data.

Check the table structure for the customers table. I think you'll find that the length of one or more fields is NOT big enough to hold the data you are trying to insert. For example, if the Phone field is a varchar(8) field, and you try to put 11 characters in to it, you will get this error.

5

I had this issue although data length was shorter than the field length. It turned out that the problem was having another log table (for audit trail), filled by a trigger on the main table, where the column size also had to be changed.

2

In one of the INSERT statements you are attempting to insert a too long string into a string (varchar or nvarchar) column.

If it's not obvious which INSERT is the offender by a mere look at the script, you could count the <1 row affected> lines that occur before the error message. The obtained number plus one gives you the statement number. In your case it seems to be the second INSERT that produces the error.

2

Just want to contribute with additional information: I had the same issue and it was because of the field wasn't big enough for the incoming data and this thread helped me to solve it (the top answer clarifies it all).

BUT it is very important to know what are the possible reasons that may cause it.

In my case i was creating the table with a field like this:

Select '' as  Period, * From Transactions Into #NewTable

Therefore the field "Period" had a length of Zero and causing the Insert operations to fail. I changed it to "XXXXXX" that is the length of the incoming data and it now worked properly (because field now had a lentgh of 6).

I hope this help anyone with same issue :)

Some of your data cannot fit into your database column (small). It is not easy to find what is wrong. If you use C# and Linq2Sql, you can list the field which would be truncated:

First create helper class:

public class SqlTruncationExceptionWithDetails : ArgumentOutOfRangeException
{
    public SqlTruncationExceptionWithDetails(System.Data.SqlClient.SqlException inner, DataContext context)
        : base(inner.Message + " " + GetSqlTruncationExceptionWithDetailsString(context))
    {
    }

    /// <summary>
    /// PArt of code from following link
    /// 
    /// </summary>
    /// <param name="context"></param>
    /// <returns></returns>
    static string GetSqlTruncationExceptionWithDetailsString(DataContext context)
    {
        StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();

        foreach (object update in context.GetChangeSet().Updates)
        {
            FindLongStrings(update, sb);
        }

        foreach (object insert in context.GetChangeSet().Inserts)
        {
            FindLongStrings(insert, sb);
        }
        return sb.ToString();
    }

    public static void FindLongStrings(object testObject, StringBuilder sb)
    {
        foreach (var propInfo in testObject.GetType().GetProperties())
        {
            foreach (System.Data.Linq.Mapping.ColumnAttribute attribute in propInfo.GetCustomAttributes(typeof(System.Data.Linq.Mapping.ColumnAttribute), true))
            {
                if (attribute.DbType.ToLower().Contains("varchar"))
                {
                    string dbType = attribute.DbType.ToLower();
                    int numberStartIndex = dbType.IndexOf("varchar(") + 8;
                    int numberEndIndex = dbType.IndexOf(")", numberStartIndex);
                    string lengthString = dbType.Substring(numberStartIndex, (numberEndIndex - numberStartIndex));
                    int maxLength = 0;
                    int.TryParse(lengthString, out maxLength);

                    string currentValue = (string)propInfo.GetValue(testObject, null);

                    if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(currentValue) && maxLength != 0 && currentValue.Length > maxLength)
                    {
                        //string is too long
                        sb.AppendLine(testObject.GetType().Name + "." + propInfo.Name + " " + currentValue + " Max: " + maxLength);
                    }

                }
            }
        }
    }
}

Then prepare the wrapper for SubmitChanges:

public static class DataContextExtensions
{
    public static void SubmitChangesWithDetailException(this DataContext dataContext)
    {
        //
        try
        {
            //this can failed on data truncation
            dataContext.SubmitChanges();
        }       
        catch (SqlException sqlException) //when (sqlException.Message == "String or binary data would be truncated.")
        {

            if (sqlException.Message == "String or binary data would be truncated.") //only for EN windows - if you are running different window language, invoke the sqlException.getMessage on thread with EN culture
                throw new SqlTruncationExceptionWithDetails(sqlException, dataContext);
            else
                throw;
        }
    }
}

Prepare global exception handler and log truncation details:

protected void Application_Error(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    Exception ex = Server.GetLastError();
    string message = ex.Message;
    //TODO - log to file
}

Finally use the code:

Datamodel.SubmitChangesWithDetailException();
1

Another situation in which you can get this error is the following:

I had the same error and the reason was that in an INSERT statement that received data from an UNION, the order of the columns was different from the original table. If you change the order in #table3 to a, b, c, you will fix the error.

select a, b, c into #table1
from #table0

insert into #table1
    select a, b, c from #table2
    union
    select a, c, b from #table3
0

on sql server you can use SET ANSI_WARNINGS OFF like this:

        using (SqlConnection conn = new SqlConnection("Data Source=XRAYGOAT\\SQLEXPRESS;Initial Catalog='Healthy Care';Integrated Security=True"))
        {
            conn.Open();

            using (var trans = conn.BeginTransaction())
            {
                try
                {
                    using cmd = new SqlCommand("", conn, trans))
                    { 

                    cmd.CommandText = "SET ANSI_WARNINGS OFF";
                    cmd.ExecuteNonQuery();

                    cmd.CommandText = "YOUR INSERT HERE";
                    cmd.ExecuteNonQuery();

                    cmd.Parameters.Clear();

                    cmd.CommandText = "SET ANSI_WARNINGS ON";
                    cmd.ExecuteNonQuery();

                    trans.Commit();
                    }
                }
                catch (Exception)
                {

                    trans.Rollback();
                }

            }

            conn.Close();

        }
1

I had the same issue. The length of my column was too short.

What you can do is either increase the length or shorten the text you want to put in the database.

Also had this problem occurring on the web application surface. Eventually found out that the same error message comes from the SQL update statement in the specific table.

Finally then figured out that the column definition in the relating history table(s) did not map the original table column length of nvarchar types in some specific cases.

I had the same problem, even after increasing the size of the problematic columns in the table.

tl;dr: The length of the matching columns in corresponding Table Types may also need to be increased.

In my case, the error was coming from the Data Export service in Microsoft Dynamics CRM, which allows CRM data to be synced to an SQL Server DB or Azure SQL DB.

After a lengthy investigation, I concluded that the Data Export service must be using Table-Valued Parameters:

You can use table-valued parameters to send multiple rows of data to a Transact-SQL statement or a routine, such as a stored procedure or function, without creating a temporary table or many parameters.

As you can see in the documentation above, Table Types are used to create the data ingestion procedure:

CREATE TYPE LocationTableType AS TABLE (...);
CREATE PROCEDURE dbo.usp_InsertProductionLocation
  @TVP LocationTableType READONLY

Unfortunately, there is no way to alter a Table Type, so it has to be dropped & recreated entirely. Since my table has over 300 fields (😱), I created a query to facilitate the creation of the corresponding Table Type based on the table's columns definition (just replace [table_name] with your table's name):

SELECT 'CREATE TYPE [table_name]Type AS TABLE (' + STRING_AGG(CAST(field AS VARCHAR(max)), ',' + CHAR(10)) + ');' AS create_type
FROM (
  SELECT TOP 5000 COLUMN_NAME + ' ' + DATA_TYPE
      + IIF(CHARACTER_MAXIMUM_LENGTH IS NULL, '', CONCAT('(', IIF(CHARACTER_MAXIMUM_LENGTH = -1, 'max', CONCAT(CHARACTER_MAXIMUM_LENGTH,'')), ')'))
      + IIF(DATA_TYPE = 'decimal', CONCAT('(', NUMERIC_PRECISION, ',', NUMERIC_SCALE, ')'), '')
      AS field
  FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLUMNS
  WHERE TABLE_NAME = '[table_name]'
  ORDER BY ORDINAL_POSITION) AS T;

After updating the Table Type, the Data Export service started functioning properly once again! :)

When I tried to execute my stored procedure I had the same problem because the size of the column that I need to add some data is shorter than the data I want to add.

You can increase the size of the column data type or reduce the length of your data.

Another situation, in which this error may occur is in SQL Server Management Studio. If you have "text" or "ntext" fields in your table, no matter what kind of field you are updating (for example bit or integer). Seems that the Studio does not load entire "ntext" fields and also updates ALL fields instead of the modified one. To solve the problem, exclude "text" or "ntext" fields from the query in Management Studio

2

A 2016/2017 update will show you the bad value and column.

A new trace flag will swap the old error for a new 2628 error and will print out the column and offending value. Traceflag 460 is available in the latest cumulative update for 2016 and 2017:

Just make sure that after you've installed the CU that you enable the trace flag, either globally/permanently on the server:

...or with DBCC TRACEON:

If someone is encountering this error in a C# application, I have created methods to:

  1. Get the column width of all the columns of a table where we're trying to make this insert/ update. (I'm getting this info directly from the database.)
  2. Compare the column widths to the width of the values we're trying to insert/ update.

Step 1:

Get the column width of all the columns of a table directly from the database:

// I took HUGE help from this Microsoft docs website: - AshishK
// 
private static Dictionary<string, int> GetColumnSizesOfTableFromDatabase(string tableName, string connectionString)
{
    var columnSizes = new Dictionary<string, int>();
            
    using (var connection = new SqlConnection(connectionString))
    {
        // Connect to the database then retrieve the schema information.  
        connection.Open();

        // You can specify the Catalog, Schema, Table Name, Column Name to get the specified column(s).
        // You can use four restrictions for Column, so you should create a 4 members array.
        String[] columnRestrictions = new String[4];

        // For the array, 0-member represents Catalog; 1-member represents Schema;
        // 2-member represents Table Name; 3-member represents Column Name.
        // Now we specify the Table_Name and Column_Name of the columns what we want to get schema information.
        columnRestrictions[2] = tableName;

        DataTable allColumnsSchemaTable = connection.GetSchema("Columns", columnRestrictions);

        foreach (DataRow row in allColumnsSchemaTable.Rows)
        {
            var columnName = row.Field<string>("COLUMN_NAME");
            var dataType = row.Field<string>("DATA_TYPE");
            var characterMaxLength = row.Field<int?>("CHARACTER_MAXIMUM_LENGTH");

            // I'm only capturing columns whose Datatype is "varchar" or "char", i.e. their CHARACTER_MAXIMUM_LENGTH won't be null.
            if(characterMaxLength != null)
            {
                columnSizes.Add(columnName, characterMaxLength.Value);
            }
        }

        connection.Close();
    }

    return columnSizes;
}
David Miller
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David Miller

David Miller brings 15 years of experience in global economics, personal finance strategy, and market dynamics. He specializes in turning complex economic trends into actionable insights for everyday readers.