Error Message:
Msg 1753, Level 16, State 0, Line 1
Column ‘%.*ls.%.*ls’ is not the same length as referencing column ‘%.*ls.%.*ls’ in foreign key ‘%.*ls’. Columns participating in a foreign key relationship must be defined with the same length.
Severity level:
16.
Description:
This error message appears when you try to create a referential integrity relation between two column of unequal length.
Consequences:
The T-SQL statement can be parsed, but causes the error at runtime.
Resolution:
Error of the Severity Level 16 are generated by the user and can be fixed by the SQL Server user. The statement cannot be executed this way. Column pairs participating in a referential integrity relationship should be of the same data type and length.
Versions:
All versions of SQL Server.
Example(s):
USE tempdb;
GO
IF OBJECT_ID(‘tempdb..t1’) > 0
DROP TABLE t1
GO
IF OBJECT_ID(‘tempdb..t’) > 0
DROP TABLE t
GO
CREATE TABLE t
(
c1 CHAR(10) PRIMARY KEY
)
GO
CREATE TABLE t1
(
c1 CHAR(5)
CONSTRAINT FK_t_t1_c1 FOREIGN KEY REFERENCES t(c1)
ON UPDATE CASCADE
)
Remarks:
In the above example we try to create a referential integrity relationship between CHAR columns of the length 5 and 10. This raises the error.