How do I check if a SQL Server text column is empty?

sql-server sql-server-2005 sqldatatypes notnull emptydatatext
atoumey picture atoumey · Aug 28, 2008 · Viewed 418.9k times · Source

I am using SQL Server 2005. I have a table with a text column and I have many rows in the table where the value of this column is not null, but it is empty. Trying to compare against '' yields this response:

The data types text and varchar are incompatible in the not equal to operator.

Is there a special function to determine whether the value of a text column is not null but empty?

Answer

Eric Z Beard picture Eric Z Beard · Aug 28, 2008 
where datalength(mytextfield)=0

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