Tuesday, July 23, 2019

SQL Server View Definition Truncating

Recently I was trying to query a view definition.
I tried a couple different methods, including sys.sql_modulesOBJECT_DEFINITION (). Both were, for reasons not immediately apparent, truncating the definition of one particular view.

I tried the obvious things like piping the output directly to a file using sqlcmd and checking my output length in SSMS.

I noticed, however, that the view in question was truncating right after the first union key word.

On a hunch, I decided to search for unprintable characters.

Stack Exchange presented me with this (unaccepted) answer from Ilya Shamuratov to a question about removing non-printable ascii characters.

CREATE FUNCTION [dbo].REPLACE_UNPRINT_CHARS(@VarString nvarchar(256))  
RETURNS nvarchar(256) 
AS    
BEGIN  
    RETURN REPLACE(REPLACE(REPLACE(REPLACE(REPLACE(REPLACE(REPLACE(REPLACE(REPLACE(REPLACE(REPLACE(REPLACE(REPLACE(REPLACE(REPLACE(REPLACE(REPLACE(REPLACE(REPLACE(REPLACE(REPLACE(REPLACE(REPLACE(REPLACE(REPLACE(REPLACE(REPLACE(REPLACE(REPLACE(REPLACE(REPLACE(REPLACE(REPLACE(REPLACE(REPLACE(REPLACE(REPLACE(REPLACE(REPLACE(REPLACE(REPLACE(REPLACE(REPLACE(REPLACE(REPLACE(REPLACE(REPLACE(REPLACE(REPLACE(REPLACE(REPLACE(REPLACE(REPLACE(REPLACE(REPLACE(REPLACE(REPLACE(REPLACE(REPLACE(REPLACE(REPLACE(REPLACE(REPLACE(REPLACE(REPLACE(REPLACE(@VarString, CHAR(0), ''), CHAR(1), ''), CHAR(2), ''), CHAR(3), ''), CHAR(4), ''), CHAR(5), ''), CHAR(6), ''), CHAR(7), ''), CHAR(8), ''), CHAR(9), ''), CHAR(10), ''), CHAR(11), ''), CHAR(12), ''), CHAR(13), ''), CHAR(14), ''), CHAR(15), ''), CHAR(16), ''), CHAR(17), ''), CHAR(18), ''), CHAR(19), ''), CHAR(20), ''), CHAR(21), ''), CHAR(22), ''), CHAR(23), ''), CHAR(24), ''), CHAR(25), ''), CHAR(26), ''), CHAR(27), ''), CHAR(28), ''), CHAR(29), ''), CHAR(30), ''), CHAR(31), ''), CHAR(127), ''), CHAR(128), ''), CHAR(129), ''), CHAR(130), ''), CHAR(131), ''), CHAR(132), ''), CHAR(133), ''), CHAR(134), ''), CHAR(135), ''), CHAR(136), ''), CHAR(137), ''), CHAR(138), ''), CHAR(139), ''), CHAR(140), ''), CHAR(141), ''), CHAR(142), ''), CHAR(143), ''), CHAR(144), ''), CHAR(145), ''), CHAR(146), ''), CHAR(147), ''), CHAR(148), ''), CHAR(149), ''), CHAR(150), ''), CHAR(151), ''), CHAR(152), ''), CHAR(153), ''), CHAR(154), ''), CHAR(155), ''), CHAR(156), ''), CHAR(157), ''), CHAR(158), ''), CHAR(159), ''), CHAR(160), ''); 
END;
 I used this directly in my query, and voila! I get the entire definition back.
NOTE that, for my implementation to work, I needed to replace with spaces ( ' ' ) rather than just using the replace function to delete (replacing with '')

I think his idea of a function that can be used is a good idea, and I may implement something like this in my toolkit.

Thanks, Ilya :-)

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