Beginning Microsoft SQL Server 2008 ... - S3 Tech Training

Chapter 12: Stored Procedures
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not from the C world, these may seem a little odd to you. All the placeholders start with the % sign and
are then coded for the kind of information you’ll be passing to them, as shown in the following table.
Placeholder Type Indicator Type of Value
D Signed integer; Books Online indicates that it is an acceptable
choice, but I’ve had problems getting it to work as expected
O Unsigned octal
P Pointer
S String
U Unsigned integer
X or x Unsigned hexadecimal
In addition, there is the option to prefix any of these placeholder indicators with some additional flag
and width information:
Flag What It Does
- (dash or
minus sign)
Left-justify; only makes a difference when you supply a fixed width
+ (plus sign) Indicates the positive or negative nature if the parameter is a signed
numeric type
0 Tells SQL Server to pad the left side of a numeric value with zeros until it
reaches the width specified in the width option
# (pound sign) Applies only to octal and hex values; tells SQL Server to use the appropriate
prefix (0 or 0x) depending on whether it is octal or hex
‘ ‘ Pads the left of a numeric value with spaces if positive
Last, but not least, you can also set the width, precision, and long/short status of a parameter:
❑ Width — Set by simply supplying an integer value for the amount of space you want to hold for
the parameterized value. You can also specify a *, in which case SQL Server will automatically
determine the width according to the value you’ve set for precision.
❑ Precision — Determines the maximum number of digits output for numeric data.
❑ Long/Short — Set by using an h (short) or I (long) when the type of the parameter is an integer,
octal, or hex value.