Defining a concatenated column size

I have a column within a view that is a concatenation of several different columns of another table. It goes something like: tblA.columnA + '-' tblA.columnB + '-' tblA.columnC + '-' tblA.columnD As 'NewColumn'
Is it possible to define the size of the 'NewColumn' within the view? I have a stored procedure that is going to create a temp table based on this view, but when I execute the stored procedure I get the following error:
Line 1: Incorrect syntax near '*'.
In looking at the stored procedure code, the error is a result of when the create table occurs, it defines the NewColumn as nvarchar(*), which is causing the error.
Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks.
On Fri, 18 Jun 2004 07:49:01 -0700, Kirk wrote:

>I have a column within a view that is a concatenation of several different columns of another table. It goes something like: tblA.columnA + '-' tblA.columnB + '-' tblA.columnC + '-' tblA.columnD As 'NewColumn'
>Is it possible to define the size of the 'NewColumn' within the view? I have a stored procedure that is going to create a temp table based on this view, but when I execute the stored procedure I get the following error:
>Line 1: Incorrect syntax near '*'.
>In looking at the stored procedure code, the error is a result of when the create table occurs, it defines the NewColumn as nvarchar(*), which is causing the error.
>Any help would be appreciated.
>Thanks.
Hi Kirk,
Define the column as nvarchar(4000) (the maximum length). Or, if you want
the max. length to be shorter, use a lower number. The result of the
concatenation will be trimmed to the max. length the column holds (and you
may also choose to trim explicitly, using LEFT or CAST function).
Best, Hugo
(Remove _NO_ and _SPAM_ to get my e-mail address)