How to check string length and then select substring in Sql Server

Question

In a view, i have a column comments which may contain large string. I just want to select first 60 characters and append the '...' at the end of the selected string.

For selecting first 60 characters i have used following query:

select LEFT(comments, 60) as comments from myview 

Now i want its processing as below:

1. Check it contains more then 60 characters or not.
2. If contains then select only first 6o characters and append three dots at the end.
3. If it doesn't contain more then 60 characters then select whole string without appending three dots at the end.

Thanks

Answer 1

To conditionally check the length of the string, use CASE.

SELECT  CASE WHEN LEN(comments) <= 60               THEN comments              ELSE LEFT(comments, 60) + '...'         END  As Comments FROM    myView 

• SQLFiddle Demo