How to Concatenate Numbers and Strings to Format Numbers in T-SQL?

Question

I have the following function

ALTER FUNCTION [dbo].[ActualWeightDIMS]
(
    -- Add the parameters for the function here
    @ActualWeight int,
    @Actual_Dims_Lenght int,
    @Actual_Dims_Width int,
    @Actual_Dims_Height int
)
RETURNS varchar(50)
AS
BEGIN

DECLARE @ActualWeightDIMS varchar(50);
--Actual Weight
     IF (@ActualWeight is not null) 
          SET @ActualWeightDIMS = @ActualWeight;
--Actual DIMS
     IF (@Actual_Dims_Lenght is not null) AND 
          (@Actual_Dims_Width is not null) AND (@Actual_Dims_Height is not null)
          SET @ActualWeightDIMS= @Actual_Dims_Lenght + 'x' + @Actual_Dims_Width + 'x' + @Actual_Dims_Height;


     RETURN(@ActualWeightDIMS);

END

but when i tried to use it, i got the following error "Conversion failed when converting the varchar value 'x' to data type int." when i use the following select statement

select 
 BA_Adjustment_Detail.ID_Number [ID_Number],
 BA_Adjustment_Detail.Submit_Date [Submit_Date],
 BA_Category.Category [category],
 BA_Type_Of_Request.Request [Type_Of_Request],
 dbo.ActualWeightDIMS(BA_Adjustment_Detail.ActualWeight,BA_Adjustment_Detail.Actual_Dims_Lenght,BA_Adjustment_Detail.Actual_Dims_Width,BA_Adjustment_Detail.Actual_Dims_Height) [Actual Weight/DIMS],
 BA_Adjustment_Detail.Notes [Notes],
 BA_Adjustment_Detail.UPSCustomerNo [UPSNo],
 BA_Adjustment_Detail.TrackingNo [AirbillNo],
 BA_Adjustment_Detail.StoreNo [StoreNo],
 BA_Adjustment_Detail.Download_Date [Download_Date],
 BA_Adjustment_Detail.Shipment_Date[ShipmentDate],
 BA_Adjustment_Detail.FranchiseNo [FranchiseNo],
 BA_Adjustment_Detail.CustomerNo [CustomerNo],
 BA_Adjustment_Detail.BillTo [BillTo],
 BA_Adjustment_Detail.Adjustment_Amount_Requested [Adjustment_Amount_Requested]
from BA_Adjustment_Detail
inner join BA_Category 
on BA_Category.ID = BA_Adjustment_Detail.CategoryID
inner join BA_Type_Of_Request
on BA_Type_Of_Request.ID = BA_Adjustment_Detail.TypeOfRequestID

What I want to do is if the ActualWeight is not null then return the ActualWeight for the "Actual Weight/DIMS" or else use the Actual_Dims_Lenght, Width and Height.

If it is DIMS then i want to format the output to be LenghtxWidhtxHeight (15x10x4). The ActualWeight, Adcutal_Dims_Lenght, Width and Height are all int (integer) value but the output for "Actual Weight/DIMS" should be varchar(50).

Where am i getting it wrong?

thank

edit: The user can only pick either Weight or DIMS on ASP.net page and if user selected DIMS then they must supply Length, Width and Height. Else it will throw error on the ASP.net page. Should i worry about it on the sql side?

Answer 1

A couple of quick notes:

• It's "length" not "lenght"
• Table aliases in your query would probably make it a lot more readable

Now onto the problem...

You need to explicitly convert your parameters to VARCHAR before trying to concatenate them. When SQL Server sees @my_int + 'X' it thinks you're trying to add the number "X" to @my_int and it can't do that. Instead try:

SET @ActualWeightDIMS =
     CAST(@Actual_Dims_Lenght AS VARCHAR(16)) + 'x' +
     CAST(@Actual_Dims_Width  AS VARCHAR(16)) + 'x' +
     CAST(@Actual_Dims_Height  AS VARCHAR(16))