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impossible to search "= N"

  • February 20, 2003 at 10:17 am

    #101388

    this is both a SQL question and a general question. I have seen multiple examples in SQL BOL that use the syntax:

    <some parameter> = N"<some string value>"

    not knowing exaclty what the "N" is for, I tried to Search BOL for "= N". That is when I started to lose it. Every kind of search I tried either gave me a "Help is unable to search for that topic." error or ignored the "= " in my phrase. Nevermind that I didn't really need to know at that moment what this line of code did, I now must know if the Search can be done! All the Web Searches I tried with the same phrase, "= N" ignore the = as well. What does =N mean, and is it possible to search for the = character???

  • February 20, 2003 at 10:22 am

    #449400

    Search for UNICODE. The N' is the designator for UNICODE.

    -SQLBill

  • February 20, 2003 at 10:32 am

    #449401

    Thanks Bill, I think I see what the N is for now. maybe. But now for the hard part, . How can you search for =?

  • February 21, 2003 at 3:05 am

    #449460

    Confused here. What is your question?

    Are you trying to find question mar character as in = '?'

    or are you trying to find equals sign as in = '='

    Far away is close at hand in the images of elsewhere.
    Anon.

  • February 21, 2003 at 3:30 am

    #449462

    The N'string values' unicode designator means interpret the data in the string as a unicode value with explicily do the whole CAST('A' as NCHAR(1))or other type of data type conversion. It is simply a shortcut.

    As for searching for '=' or '?' whichever you meant. If the datatype field you are searching in is unicode based (nchar, nvarchar, ntext, etc.) Then do N'=' or N'?' otherwise all you need is '=' or '?' nothing more.

    The only special condition I am aware of is seaching for ' then you have to double the ' to ''. So a unicode value would be N'''' or non-unicode would be ''''.

  • February 21, 2003 at 8:09 am

    #449474

    Why are you trying to search for the equal sign (=) in BOL? = is used for ASSIGNMENT and reads right to left.

    A = B means "the value of B is assigned to A"

    C = D + E does NOT mean C equals the value of D plus E. It means that "the value of D is added to the value of E and that value is assigned to C".

    -SQLBill

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