Do you know if there\'s a quick way in sql server (via transact-sql) that I could trim all the database string fields.
No cursors. Copy and paste the output. Works also for SQL 2000, which doesn't have varchar(max). This can be easily extended to add a GO line to the end of each UPDATE if desired.
SELECT SQL
FROM ( SELECT t.TABLE_CATALOG
, t.TABLE_SCHEMA
, t.TABLE_NAME
, 0 SORT
, 'UPDATE ' + QUOTENAME(t.TABLE_CATALOG) + '.' + QUOTENAME(t.TABLE_SCHEMA) + '.' + QUOTENAME(t.TABLE_NAME) SQL
FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.TABLES t
JOIN INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLUMNS c
ON t.TABLE_CATALOG = c.TABLE_CATALOG
AND t.TABLE_SCHEMA = c.TABLE_SCHEMA
AND t.TABLE_NAME = c.TABLE_NAME
WHERE t.TABLE_TYPE = 'BASE TABLE'
AND c.DATA_TYPE IN ('char','nchar','varchar','nvarchar')
GROUP BY t.TABLE_CATALOG
, t.TABLE_SCHEMA
, t.TABLE_NAME
UNION ALL
SELECT x.TABLE_CATALOG
, x.TABLE_SCHEMA
, x.TABLE_NAME
, CASE WHEN x.COLUMN_NAME_MIN = y.COLUMN_NAME
THEN 1
ELSE 2
END SORT
, CASE WHEN x.COLUMN_NAME_MIN = y.COLUMN_NAME
THEN 'SET '
ELSE ' , '
END + y.SQL SQL
FROM ( SELECT t.TABLE_CATALOG
, t.TABLE_SCHEMA
, t.TABLE_NAME
, MIN(c.COLUMN_NAME) COLUMN_NAME_MIN
FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.TABLES t
JOIN INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLUMNS c
ON t.TABLE_CATALOG = c.TABLE_CATALOG
AND t.TABLE_SCHEMA = c.TABLE_SCHEMA
AND t.TABLE_NAME = c.TABLE_NAME
WHERE t.TABLE_TYPE = 'BASE TABLE'
AND c.DATA_TYPE IN ('char','nchar','varchar','nvarchar')
GROUP BY t.TABLE_CATALOG
, t.TABLE_SCHEMA
, t.TABLE_NAME
) x
JOIN ( SELECT t.TABLE_CATALOG
, t.TABLE_SCHEMA
, t.TABLE_NAME
, c.COLUMN_NAME
, QUOTENAME(c.COLUMN_NAME) + ' = LTRIM(RTRIM(' + QUOTENAME(c.COLUMN_NAME) + '))' SQL
FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.TABLES t
JOIN INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLUMNS c
ON t.TABLE_CATALOG = c.TABLE_CATALOG
AND t.TABLE_SCHEMA = c.TABLE_SCHEMA
AND t.TABLE_NAME = c.TABLE_NAME
WHERE t.TABLE_TYPE = 'BASE TABLE'
AND c.DATA_TYPE IN ('char','nchar','varchar','nvarchar')
) y
ON x.TABLE_CATALOG = y.TABLE_CATALOG
AND x.TABLE_SCHEMA = y.TABLE_SCHEMA
AND x.TABLE_NAME = y.TABLE_NAME
) x
ORDER BY x.TABLE_CATALOG
, x.TABLE_SCHEMA
, x.TABLE_NAME
, x.SORT
, x.SQL