Tag Archives: #TSQL

Articles on T-SQL. This can be a script or a syntax element

#0408 – SQL Server – Msg 1750: Could not create constraint or index

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An trivial problem came to my desk recently. We were having some issues in creating a table. The script was quite simple, and yet we were facing errors as shown below.

USE tempdb;
GO
IF OBJECT_ID('dbo.ConstraintsCheck','U') IS NOT NULL
    DROP TABLE dbo.ConstraintsCheck;
GO

CREATE TABLE dbo.ConstraintsCheck 
    (RecordId INT NOT NULL IDENTITY(1,1),
     Field1   INT NOT NULL,
     Field2   INT NOT NULL
     CONSTRAINT chk_IsField2GreaterThanField1 CHECK (Field2 > Field1)
    );
GO

The script was being run via an installer, and hence all we got was the last part of the error message:

Msg 1750, Level 16, State 0, Line 7
Could not create constraint or index. See previous errors.

If you have already caught the error, great work! As for us, it took a couple of minutes and running the script via SSMS before we realized that the issue was a just a plain human error.

Here’s the full error that we got when the script was executed in SSMS:

Msg 8141, Level 16, State 0, Line 7
Column CHECK constraint for column 'Field2' references another column, table 'ConstraintsCheck'.
Msg 1750, Level 16, State 0, Line 7
Could not create constraint or index. See previous errors.

The first message that is thrown is the key – it clearly tells us that the CHECK constraint definition cannot be created because it references another column. However, this is a fairly common requirement which is what threw us off.

Finally we realized that we did not have a comma in the T-SQL script before the constraint was defined. Without the comma, SQL Server is trying to create a column constraint, when what we wanted was a table constraint. Here’s the extract from TechNet:

  • A column constraint is specified as part of a column definition and applies only to that column.
  • A table constraint is declared independently from a column definition and can apply to more than one column in a table.

So, we just added the comma to convert the column constraint to a table constraint and we were all set.

USE tempdb;
GO
IF OBJECT_ID('dbo.ConstraintsCheck','U') IS NOT NULL
    DROP TABLE dbo.ConstraintsCheck;
GO

CREATE TABLE dbo.ConstraintsCheck 
    (RecordId INT NOT NULL IDENTITY(1,1),
     Field1   INT NOT NULL,
     Field2   INT NOT NULL, --<-- A comma here makes it a legal Table Constraint
     CONSTRAINT chk_IsField2GreaterThanField1 CHECK (Field2 > Field1)
    );
GO

References:

Until we meet next time,

Be courteous. Drive responsibly.

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#0406 – SQL Server – Remember that spaces and blank strings are the same

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It was recently brought to my attention that a particular script was passing spaces when it should not. Here’s an example:

DECLARE @spaceCharacter NVARCHAR(1) = N' ';
DECLARE @blankCharacter NVARCHAR(1) = N'';

--Confirm that we are looking at different values
--The ASCII codes are different!
SELECT ASCII(@spaceCharacter) AS ASCIICodeForSpace,
       ASCII(@blankCharacter) AS ASCIICodeForBlankString;

--Compare a blank string with spaces
IF (@spaceCharacter = @blankCharacter)
    SELECT 'Yes' AS IsSpaceSameAsBlankString;
ELSE 
    SELECT 'No' AS IsSpaceSameAsBlankString;
GO

/* RESULTS
ASCIICodeForSpace ASCIICodeForBlankString
----------------- -----------------------
32                NULL

IsSpaceSameAsBlankString
------------------------
Yes
*/

01_Symptom

We then checked the LENGTH and DATALENGTH of both strings and noticed something interesting – the check on the LENGTH was trimming out trailing spaces whereas the check on the DATALENGTH was not.

DECLARE @spaceCharacter NVARCHAR(1) = N' ';
DECLARE @blankCharacter NVARCHAR(1) = N'';

--Check the length
SELECT LEN(@spaceCharacter) AS LengthOfSpace, 
       LEN(@blankCharacter) AS LengthOfBlankCharacter,
       DATALENGTH(@spaceCharacter) AS DataLengthOfSpace, 
       DATALENGTH(@blankCharacter) AS DataLengthOfBlankCharacter;
GO

/* RESULTS
LengthOfSpace LengthOfBlankCharacter DataLengthOfSpace DataLengthOfBlankCharacter
------------- ---------------------- ----------------- --------------------------
0             0                      2                 0
*/

02_LengthAndDataLength

Often, we loose sight of the most basic concepts – they hide in our subconscious. This behaviour of SQL Server is enforced by the SQL Standard (specifically SQL ’92) based on which most RDBMS systems are made of.

The ideal solution for an accurate string comparison was therefore to also compare the data length in addition to a normal string comparison.

DECLARE @spaceCharacter NVARCHAR(1) = N' ';
DECLARE @blankCharacter NVARCHAR(1) = N'';

--The Solution
IF (@spaceCharacter = @blankCharacter) 
   AND (DATALENGTH(@spaceCharacter) = DATALENGTH(@blankCharacter))
    SELECT 'Yes' AS IsSpaceSameAsBlankString;
ELSE 
    SELECT 'No' AS IsSpaceSameAsBlankString;
GO

/* RESULTS
IsSpaceSameAsBlankString
------------------------
No
*/

03_Solution

Further Reading

  • How SQL Server Compares Strings with Trailing Spaces [KB316626]

Until we meet next time,

Be courteous. Drive responsibly.