Unexpected Symbols in TextData Column of SQL Profiler

  • I ran SQL Profile and stored results in a SQL table. Then, looking back at the results, I noticed that some of the entries have strange character sequences instead of anything similar to regular SQL statements. Here are some examples of the TextData column contents. As you can see, some of them are not readable. However those tool CPU and IO time to be executed.

    exec p_expiringQuoteUsers

    exec quoteMaster..p_quoteTransformTEST

    †††††? †††††?††? †???

    ††

    p_UpdateDRROP200History

    ?????‹†††††††††<??????????‰????????4??????`†††????

    p_subset30day

    xp_cmdshell 'c:\PerlScripts\ar0040index.pl'

    My question is where the "strange" entries are coming from and what could they mean? Could they be encripted stored procedures? All the "strange" entries are coming from the same database.

    Thanks for your help.

    Michael

     

  • Considering the environment, I would think it is something else other than what I am about to suggest-  but I thought i'd throw it out there anyway.

    In ISQL when selecting character data from a DB that stored characters from a legacy app for Germany, some of the characters displayed strangely or in completely different ways until I played with the settings in the ISQL tool to make it translate it in an appropriate manner.  I guess what I am sayin is character translation/encoding?... it was a while back so don't remember specifics.

    Regardless of whether or not this is the case, could you dig back into the calling code and see what text it is actually sending?  Does dbcc inputbuffer show you anything different?

  • These strange queries are all coming from one SQL Server database that was populated from AS/400.

  • By 'was populated' dont you mean that it was originally loaded with data from that source?  the TextData field in a profiler trace result I think would apply to the text of the queries being ran.  What is the event type of a sample? I.e. if it is 'RPC: Statement Completed' or somesuch then that is the case.

    Can you access the procedures such as p_UpdateDRROP200History

    and look at it from the environment is being ran from?  If you use the native tool to see what it says it is sending, you already see the translated ISQL version of what it says SQL is getting, so you can compare the two.

    In reference to my previous post, I asked someone here who has had character translation issues with Japanese characters, and he changed the font to MS Mincho or somesuch and it now displays the japanese characters correctly in ISQL.  Er, i may be using the wrong acronym... I mean SQL Query analyzer, the version installed from SQL Server 2k.

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