MSSQL VARCHAR vs. Alteryx V_String

maxksoll

Hi all,

I just imported some values from my SQL server and realized some differences after the import compared to the values in original table. The database is providing VARCHARS, which are interpreted from Alteryx automatically as V_Strings. The allowed characters for V_Strings are only Latin-1, but the VARCHAR may contain even more characters and Alteryx dropps them without a warning within the import. I had a very hard time to find the origin of this problem.

As an example the string from the database contained '…', but I only received ''.

Should this be the expected behaviour or am I missing something here?

Best regards

Max

PhilippK

Hi @maxksoll,

in order to better understand your issue - can you share your workflow and a concrete data example from your database and how it looks in Alteryx?


Yes SQL VARCHAR usually gets converted to V-String in Alteryx, which covers Latin-1 encoding only:

https://community.alteryx.com/t5/Alteryx-Designer-Discussions/sql-server-output-data-types/td-p/11474

It looks like VARCHAR supports UTF-8 encoding since SQL Server Version 2019. 
https://www.sqlshack.com/sql-varchar-data-type-deep-dive/
Which SQL Server version are you using?


It sounds like you need a V_WString in Alteryx for your case.
https://help.alteryx.com/current/Reference/DataFieldType.htm

Workaround if Alteryx doesn't convert it to V_WString automatically:
Add a CAST statement [ I would try varchar(max)(Max) ] to the IMPORT SQL statement:

Best regards

Phil