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

SQL_VARIANT_PROPERTY
SQL_VARIANT_PROPERTY is a powerful function and returns information about an sql_variant. This
information could be from BaseType, Precision, Scale, TotalBytes, Collation, or MaxLength. The
syntax is:
SQL_VARIANT_PROPERTY (expression, property)
Expression is an expression of type sql_variant. Property can be any one of the following values:
Value Description Base Type of
sql_variant
Returned
BaseType Data types include: char, int, money, nchar, ntext,
numeric, nvarchar, real, smalldatetime, smallint,
smallmoney, text, timestamp, tinyint, uniqueidentifier,
varbinary, varchar
Precision The precision of the numeric base data type:
datetime = 23
smalldatetime = 16
float = 53
real = 24
decimal (p,s) and numeric (p,s) = p
money = 19
smallmoney = 10
int = 10
smallint = 5
tinyint = 3
bit = 1
All other types = 0
Scale The number of digits to the right of the decimal
point of the numeric base data type:
decimal (p,s) and numeric (p,s) = s
money and smallmoney = 4
datetime = 3
All other types = 0
TotalBytes The number of bytes required to hold both the metadata and
data of the value.
If the value is greater than 900, index creation will fail.
Apendix A: System Functions
sysname
Collation The collation of the particular sql_variant value. sysname
MaxLength The maximum data type length, in bytes. int
int
int
int
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