sql server 2005: Value truncation

Question

My table contains a field password whose size is Varchar(70). But when I enter the hash value of the password which is of size 40 the last few characters are getting truncated. I'm using SQL SERVER 2005. Why is it so??

Answer 1

The only time I've seen this is when you cast to varchar without specifying a length

Run this :

declare @test varchar(70)

set @test = '1111111111222222222233333333334444444444555555555566666666667777777777'
select @test

select 
    cast(@test as varchar) as CastedWithoutLength,
    cast(@test as varchar(40)) as CastedWith40Length,
    cast(@test as varchar(70)) as CastedWith70Length

CastedWithoutLength will only be 30 characters long, the rest will be whatever the length was set to.