Strange Sybase / SQL Server linked server issue

Question

I have a sybase table which has a column note varchar(1000) null.

The following T-SQL will get the following error if there is a not-null value in note. (sybase is the linked server to the Sybase database)

select * from (sybase, 'select note from table')
select * from (sybase, 'select left(note, 257) note from table')
select * from (sybase, 'select left(note, 1000) note from table')

OLE DB provider 'ASEOLEDB' for linked server 'sybase' returned data that does not match expected data length for column '[ASEOLEDB].note'. The (maximum) expected data length is 257, while the returned data length is 258.

However, it works if the length parameter is less and equal to 256.

select * from (sybase, 'select left(note, 256) note from table')

Also the following SQL works.

exec ('select note from table') at [sybase]

Is it a bug of the Sybase driver?

Answer 1

try

select * from OPENQUERY(sybase, 'select left(cast(note as varchar(1000)), 257) note from table')

• u23432534: It gets the error of "The (maximum) expected data length is 257, while the returned data length is 258".
• AmmarR: Whats Sybase version you are connected to, what sybase driver are you using and whats your SQL server
• u23432534: The version is Adaptive Server Enterprise/12.5.4/EBF 16787 ESD#10/P/RS6000/AIX 5.1/ase1254/2159/64-bit/FBO/Mon Nov 2 10:11:59 2009. The driver is the OLEDB driver downloaded from sybase website.
• AmmarR: I am using sybase driver 15.2 and i dont see the problem, your problem looks like its with the driver. I had many problems before with driver 12.5. If you can go for 15.2 try it