sql server programming: The problem is that the char value gets padded so what you are actually
looking for is:

'% '

Rather than

'%'

So any number of characters followed by 20 spaces is not what you want
probably. It is confusing, to be sure. For example take this code:

declare @char char(60)
set @char = '%'
select '*' + @char + '*'

This returns:

--------------------------------------------------------------
*% *

Use varchar and you won't have this problem.


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CREATE PROCEDURE get_books_by_title @title varchar(60)
AS
SELECT * FROM Books
WHERE Title LIKE @title
GO

I have a simple stored procedure that is defined as shown below:

CREATE PROCEDURE get_books_by_title
@title char(60)
AS
SELECT * FROM Books
WHERE Title LIKE @title
GO

I call this procedure witha wildcard as shown:

exec dbo.get_books_by_title '%'

but this only returns 4 out of the 12 entries on the table. The
strange thing is, when I reduce the size of the parameter to 20
characters then I get all entries returned. As I start to increase the
number of characters defined for the parameter I get more and more
lines not being returned from the table.

Any help would be gratefully appreciated.

Regards