Any workaround for row size > 8060?

Hi All,
We're converting Oracle databases to SQL Server. In Oracle there's no such limit for row size and SQL has.
We've Centura as front-end (Gupta SQL formerly).
While testing is going on......we are getting row size exceeds max limit of 8060 bytes...and we don't know what exactly we need to do.
In the problem tables, I have one TEXT column and various varchar 4000 and varchar 2000 columns.
The application will insert more than 8060 characters for sure..
Can anybody suggest any workaround for this? or Any pointers?
The table structure is something like this:
CREATE TABLE [Table1] (
[Table_ID] [varchar] (10) NOT NULL ,
[T_NOTES1] [TEXT] NULL ,
[T_NOTES2] [varchar] (4000) NULL ,
[C_NOTES] [varchar] (4000) NULL ,
[P_NOTES] [varchar] (4000) NULL ,
[G_NOTES] [varchar] (256) NULL ,
[F_NOTES] [varchar] (256) NULL ,
[L_NOTES] [varchar] (256) NULL ,
[P_NEEDS] [varchar] (256) NULL ,
[F_NEEDS] [varchar] (256) NULL ,
[O_NOTE] [varchar] (250) NULL ,
[V_SOURCES] [varchar] (2000) NULL ,
[T_PROOFS] [varchar] (250) NULL ,
[V_SKILLS] [varchar] (2000) NULL ,
[R_CREDS] [varchar] (2000) NULL ,
[ROWID] [uniqueidentifier] NOT NULL CONSTRAINT
CONSTRAINT [FK_RO_TES_PROID] FOREIGN KEY
(
[PRO_ID]
) REFERENCES [Table_INFO1] (
[PRO_ID]
) ON DELETE CASCADE
) ON [PRIMARY] TEXTIMAGE_ON [PRIMARY]
GO
If we split the table, will it help?
Can we have more than one column as TEXT data type?
-----
One more point: I appreciate if somebody can clarify this:
TEXT data type can store lot of data...right?
Then if we're inserting > 8060 (row size limit) into the TEXT column why would it error?
If this is so, what is the point in using TEXT column?
I'm little bit confused........I appreciate if somebody can clarify this..
Thanks much,
John..
John,
You can split the table vertically (and of course carry the PK to each table).
As for TEXT (and NTEXT and IMAGE), yes, in these you can have up to 2GB per row. They are, however, more
involved to program against. At the TSQL level, you use stuff like READTEXT, UPDATETEXT, TEXTPRT etc (think of
reading and writing in a loop, using a pointer). The API/dev tool you are using might abstract this from you,
though.
Yes, you can have several columns of the "BLOB" datatypes.
Tibor Karaszi, SQL Server MVP
http://www.karaszi.com/sqlserver/default.asp
"John" <johnfull_2000@.yahoo.com> wrote in message news:C8579948-714C-4CA5-9244-9AC486144518@.microsoft.com...
> Hi All,
> We're converting Oracle databases to SQL Server. In Oracle there's no such limit for row size and SQL has.
> We've Centura as front-end (Gupta SQL formerly).
> While testing is going on......we are getting row size exceeds max limit of 8060 bytes...and we don't know
what exactly we need to do.
> In the problem tables, I have one TEXT column and various varchar 4000 and varchar 2000 columns.
> The application will insert more than 8060 characters for sure..
> Can anybody suggest any workaround for this? or Any pointers?
> The table structure is something like this:
> CREATE TABLE [Table1] (
> [Table_ID] [varchar] (10) NOT NULL ,
> [T_NOTES1] [TEXT] NULL ,
> [T_NOTES2] [varchar] (4000) NULL ,
> [C_NOTES] [varchar] (4000) NULL ,
> [P_NOTES] [varchar] (4000) NULL ,
> [G_NOTES] [varchar] (256) NULL ,
> [F_NOTES] [varchar] (256) NULL ,
> [L_NOTES] [varchar] (256) NULL ,
> [P_NEEDS] [varchar] (256) NULL ,
> [F_NEEDS] [varchar] (256) NULL ,
> [O_NOTE] [varchar] (250) NULL ,
> [V_SOURCES] [varchar] (2000) NULL ,
> [T_PROOFS] [varchar] (250) NULL ,
> [V_SKILLS] [varchar] (2000) NULL ,
> [R_CREDS] [varchar] (2000) NULL ,
> [ROWID] [uniqueidentifier] NOT NULL CONSTRAINT
> CONSTRAINT [FK_RO_TES_PROID] FOREIGN KEY
> (
> [PRO_ID]
> ) REFERENCES [Table_INFO1] (
> [PRO_ID]
> ) ON DELETE CASCADE
> ) ON [PRIMARY] TEXTIMAGE_ON [PRIMARY]
> GO
> If we split the table, will it help?
> Can we have more than one column as TEXT data type?
> -----
> One more point: I appreciate if somebody can clarify this:
> TEXT data type can store lot of data...right?
> Then if we're inserting > 8060 (row size limit) into the TEXT column why would it error?
> If this is so, what is the point in using TEXT column?
> I'm little bit confused........I appreciate if somebody can clarify this..
> Thanks much,
> John..
|||John,
Does Centura support SQL Server? Perhaps an engineer from Centura would be
required to do this migration work. The problem you are having is that you
will need to use the text data type if you need to store more than 8060
bytes per row. Application changes may need to be made to accomodate this
data type, either at the stored procedure layer or the data access layer in
dynamic SQL in the application itself.
There are many gotchas with the text datatype and they cannot be treated in
the same way as a varchar due to the nature in the way they are stored. i.e.
if the text cannot be stored in row, as in its greater than 8K, then a
pointer is stored in the row to the data pages where the text data can be
found. There is a lot of information on this data type in Books Online, I
recommend you read it.
Mark Allison, SQL Server MVP
http://www.markallison.co.uk
"John" <johnfull_2000@.yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:C8579948-714C-4CA5-9244-9AC486144518@.microsoft.com...
> Hi All,
> We're converting Oracle databases to SQL Server. In Oracle there's no such
limit for row size and SQL has.
> We've Centura as front-end (Gupta SQL formerly).
> While testing is going on......we are getting row size exceeds max limit
of 8060 bytes...and we don't know what exactly we need to do.
> In the problem tables, I have one TEXT column and various varchar 4000 and
varchar 2000 columns.
> The application will insert more than 8060 characters for sure..
> Can anybody suggest any workaround for this? or Any pointers?
> The table structure is something like this:
> CREATE TABLE [Table1] (
> [Table_ID] [varchar] (10) NOT NULL ,
> [T_NOTES1] [TEXT] NULL ,
> [T_NOTES2] [varchar] (4000) NULL ,
> [C_NOTES] [varchar] (4000) NULL ,
> [P_NOTES] [varchar] (4000) NULL ,
> [G_NOTES] [varchar] (256) NULL ,
> [F_NOTES] [varchar] (256) NULL ,
> [L_NOTES] [varchar] (256) NULL ,
> [P_NEEDS] [varchar] (256) NULL ,
> [F_NEEDS] [varchar] (256) NULL ,
> [O_NOTE] [varchar] (250) NULL ,
> [V_SOURCES] [varchar] (2000) NULL ,
> [T_PROOFS] [varchar] (250) NULL ,
> [V_SKILLS] [varchar] (2000) NULL ,
> [R_CREDS] [varchar] (2000) NULL ,
> [ROWID] [uniqueidentifier] NOT NULL CONSTRAINT
> CONSTRAINT [FK_RO_TES_PROID] FOREIGN KEY
> (
> [PRO_ID]
> ) REFERENCES [Table_INFO1] (
> [PRO_ID]
> ) ON DELETE CASCADE
> ) ON [PRIMARY] TEXTIMAGE_ON [PRIMARY]
> GO
> If we split the table, will it help?
> Can we have more than one column as TEXT data type?
> ----
--
> One more point: I appreciate if somebody can clarify this:
> TEXT data type can store lot of data...right?
> Then if we're inserting > 8060 (row size limit) into the TEXT column why
would it error?
> If this is so, what is the point in using TEXT column?
> I'm little bit confused........I appreciate if somebody can clarify
this..
> Thanks much,
> John..
|||For your question, Mark:
Yes. Centura supports SQL Server.
I want to get clear about one more thing:
You mean to say, If I have a TEXT column, it can accommodate more than 8060 bytes..right?
That means excluding the TEXT column, the total row size shouldn't be greater than 8060....
That means, the error is coming bcoz of the total exceeds 8060....
Please clarify..
For you, Tibor:
I changed couple of columns (3 to 4 columns) to TEXT and I started receiving STACK DUMP and EXCEPTION HANDLING ERRORS etc....
and nobody could connect to the server.
Then I had to stop the server and restart the server.
Then I had to change the columns back to varchar(4000)......but the error 'row size cannot be greater than > 8060 is coming'..
Any inputs, please let me know.
Thanks,
John..
|||> You mean to say, If I have a TEXT column, it can accommodate more than 8060 bytes..right?
Correct.

> That means excluding the TEXT column, the total row size shouldn't be greater than 8060....
Correct.

> That means, the error is coming bcoz of the total exceeds 8060....
Correct.

> I changed couple of columns (3 to 4 columns) to TEXT and I started receiving STACK DUMP and EXCEPTION
HANDLING ERRORS etc....
> and nobody could connect to the server.
Then you had the unfortunate to (most likely) hit some bug in SQL Server. You can make sure you are updated on
service packs, search KB for resolution or possibly open a case with MS on this.
Important to understand it that it takes special programming to work with these datatypes. It is not only a
matter of changing the table structure. As I mentioned in my earlier post, the dev tool/API might abstract you
from that, but that is up to each dev tool/API vendor.
Tibor Karaszi, SQL Server MVP
http://www.karaszi.com/sqlserver/default.asp
"John" <johnfull_2000@.yahoo.com> wrote in message news:A06EB4C0-2FA1-48F8-B0E3-692EA32246B3@.microsoft.com...
> For your question, Mark:
> Yes. Centura supports SQL Server.
> I want to get clear about one more thing:
> You mean to say, If I have a TEXT column, it can accommodate more than 8060 bytes..right?
> That means excluding the TEXT column, the total row size shouldn't be greater than 8060....
> That means, the error is coming bcoz of the total exceeds 8060....
> Please clarify..
> For you, Tibor:
> I changed couple of columns (3 to 4 columns) to TEXT and I started receiving STACK DUMP and EXCEPTION
HANDLING ERRORS etc....
> and nobody could connect to the server.
> Then I had to stop the server and restart the server.
> Then I had to change the columns back to varchar(4000)......but the error 'row size cannot be greater than
> 8060 is coming'..
> Any inputs, please let me know.
> Thanks,
> John..
>
|||THANK YOU.....for the info
John.
sql