Posted by Erland Sommarskog on 10/14/09 11:28

John Bell (jbellnewsposts@hotmail.com) writes:
> If you are not writing a new interface then you are probably better
> using a fixed notation. Such as InvoiceNumber/VendorAcronym/Status. If
> each part is a fixed length then you don't need a separator, but it may
> help the users differentiate the different parts. I would have expect
> that you can determine the fact that an invoice is a referral by a
> different means.


Now, how is that for a user interface? This is free text, and users will
mangle it anyway, but they have better odds with a separator than fixed
length.

I have not intervened into this thread before, because I don't have
much advice to offer Steve in this dire situation.

Hm, possibly could have a trigger on the table that loaded a new table
with the fields split in pieces. Still iffy with regards to the vendor,
but at least no existing object is changed. (Then again, being on the
vendor side of the fence, I know what I would think if I found that one
of our customers had added a trigger to one of our tables.)

--
Erland Sommarskog, SQL Server MVP, esquel@sommarskog.se

Books Online for SQL Server SP3 at
http://www.microsoft.com/sql/techinfo/productdoc/2000/books.asp

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