FIX: ORDER BY Queries May Remove Spaces from ANSI_PADDING Tables

An ORDER BY query can remove any trailing spaces if all of the following conditions are true:

• The table is created while ANSI_PADDING is enabled.
• Some of the rows contain trailing spaces in columns of type varchar.
• The ORDER BY query is executed with ANSI_PADDING disabled.
• A worktable is used for an ORDER BY clause.
• The entire column list is not selected with "*".

To work around this problem, try one of the following:

• Enable ANSI_PADDING before running the query.
• Create an index on the table that can be used for the ORDER BY clause.
• Select all columns of the table with "*".

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in SQL Server 6.5. This problem has been corrected in Service Pack 5a for Microsoft SQL Server 6.5.For more information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:For more information, contact your primary support provider.

DB-Library clients are susceptible to this problem, because ANSI_PADDING is disabled by default. ODBC-based clients would not normally see this problem because ANSI_PADDING is enabled by default.