Microsoft KB Archive/925732

= FIX: You may receive inconsistent comparison results when you compare strings by using a width sensitive collation in SQL Server 2000 =

Article ID: 925732

Article Last Modified on 11/2/2007

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APPLIES TO


 * Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Enterprise Edition 64-bit
 * Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Desktop Engine (Windows)
 * Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Developer Edition
 * Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Enterprise Edition
 * Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Standard Edition
 * Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Workgroup Edition
 * Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Developer Edition
 * Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Personal Edition

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Bug #: 50000297 (SQL Hotfix)



Microsoft distributes Microsoft SQL Server 2000 fixes as one downloadable file. Because the fixes are cumulative, each new release contains all the hotfixes and all the security fixes that were included with the previous SQL Server 2000 fix release.



SUMMARY
This article describes the following about this hotfix release:
 * The issues that are fixed by this hotfix package
 * The prerequisites for installing the hotfix package
 * Whether you must restart the computer after you install the hotfix package
 * Whether the hotfix package is replaced by any other hotfix package
 * Whether you must make any registry changes
 * The files that are contained in the hotfix package



SYMPTOMS
Consider the following scenario:
 * You compare strings by using one of the width sensitive collations in Microsoft SQL Server 2000. For example, you have three strings. You compare these strings by using the Latin1_general_CS_AS_WS collation.
 * Two of the strings contain punctuation characters at the same position.
 * The punctuation characters in the two strings only differ from each other in character weight. For example, one string contains a half-width hyphen (-). The other string contains a full-width hyphen (－).
 * The punctuation characters are combined with other strings that only have a case difference in the two strings.

In this scenario, you may receive inconsistent comparison results. For example, you may receive the following incorrect results:

String1 > String2 > String3 > String1

The inconsistent comparison may cause index corruption or incorrect results for queries. Additionally, error 644 may be logged in the SQL Server Errorlog file when you execute a query that uses an index on a table that contains such strings.

For a list of all publicly released SQL Server 2000 Post-Service Pack 3a hotfixes, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

810185 SQL Server 2000 hotfix update for SQL Server 2000 Service Pack 3 and 3a



RESOLUTION
The installer does not install this hotfix correctly on x64-based systems. This installation issue occurs when the following conditions are true:
 * The system uses the Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) AMD64 processor architecture or the Intel Extended Memory 64 Technology (EM64T) processor architecture.

Note This issue does not occur on systems that use the Intel Itanium processor architecture.
 * The system is running a 64-bit version of the Microsoft Windows Server operating system.
 * The system is running a 32-bit version of SQL Server 2000.

We have corrected this installation issue in later builds of SQL Server 2000, starting with version 8.00.2244. When a customer who is running SQL Server 2000 on an x64-based system requests this hotfix, we will provide a build that includes this hotfix and that can be installed correctly on an x64-based system. The build that we provide will be version 8.00.2244 or a later version.

Hotfix information
A supported hotfix is now available from Microsoft, but it is only intended to correct the problem that is described in this article. Only apply it to systems that are experiencing this specific problem. This hotfix may receive additional testing. Therefore, if you are not severely affected by this problem, we recommend that you wait for the next Microsoft SQL Server 2000 service pack that contains this hotfix.

To resolve this problem immediately, contact Microsoft Product Support Services to obtain the hotfix. For a complete list of Microsoft Product Support Services telephone numbers and information about support costs, visit the following Microsoft Web site:

http://support.microsoft.com/contactus/?ws=support

Note In special cases, charges that are ordinarily incurred for support calls may be canceled if a Microsoft Support Professional determines that a specific update will resolve your problem. The usual support costs will apply to additional support questions and issues that do not qualify for the specific update in question.

Prerequisites
To apply this hotfix, you must have SQL Server 2000 Service Pack 4 (SP4) installed on the computer. For more information about how to obtain SQL Server 2000 Service Pack 4, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

290211 How to obtain the latest SQL Server 2000 service pack

Restart information
You do not have to restart the computer after you apply this hotfix.

Registry information
You do not have to change the registry.

Hotfix file information
This hotfix contains only those files that are required to correct the issues that this article lists. This hotfix may not contain of all the files that you must have to fully update a product to the latest build.

The English version of this hotfix has the file attributes (or later file attributes) that are listed in the following table. The dates and times for these files are listed in Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). When you view the file information, it is converted to local time. To find the difference between UTC and local time, use the Time Zone tab in the Date and Time item in Control Panel.

SQL Server 2000, 64-bit version
Note Because of file dependencies, the most recent hotfix or feature that contains these files may also contain additional files.

Note After you install this hotfix, you must rebuild all indexes that are created on the following data types to avoid this problem:
 * char
 * varchar
 * nchar
 * nvarchar



STATUS
Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed in the &quot;Applies to&quot; section.



Steps to reproduce the problem
 Open SQL Query Analyzer.  Run the following statements. declare @v1 nvarchar(20) declare @v2 nvarchar(20) declare @v3 nvarchar(20) -- The following string contains a half-width hyphen followed by an uppercase character &quot;A&quot;. set @v1 = 0x2D004100 -- The following string contains a full-width hyphen followed by a lowercase character &quot;a&quot;. set @v2 = 0x0DFF6100 set @v3 = 0x4100

select @v1 as [@v1],@v2 as [@v2],@v3 as [@v3] select '@v1 < @v2' where @v1 < @v2 collate latin1_general_CS_AS_WS select '@v2 < @v3' where @v2 < @v3 collate latin1_general_CS_AS_WS select '@v3 < @v1' where @v3 < @v1 collate latin1_general_CS_AS_WS GO 



For more information about the naming schema for SQL Server updates, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

822499 New naming schema for Microsoft SQL Server software update packages

For more information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

824684 Description of the standard terminology that is used to describe Microsoft software updates

Keywords: kbbug kbfix kbqfe kbhotfixserver KB925732

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