Changing the DataType of a Coluumn in an In-Memory Dataset

Here is the issue. I have ReadOnly Access to a database. All of the Columns are set to NVARCHAR(1000) by default. I cannot change them. I want to load the DataSet into memory and change the DataType of the columns from NVARCHAR(1000) to INT(4). The data is in integer (i.e. 4,5,123) format (but stored as a string), but is coming across as strings. The charting software I am using won't implicitly convert these Strings to Int or Double. How can I change an entire column to Int?

You need ANSI SQL ALTER COLUMN, I am not sure if you can do that for read only. Try the url below for your options. Hope this helps.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/tsqlref/ts_aa-az_3ied.asp

Kind regards,

Gift Peddie

|||Or, you could cast in in the SELECT statement. Like so: SELECT someColumn, otherColumn, CAST(thisColumn AS INT) AS thisColumnFROM yourTable...
But really, if you have an NVARCHAR(1000) column that's nothing butintegers, you really *should* change the underlying column in the tableto be the proper type.
|||I know, but this DB is the result of a portal tool, which I have no control over. I will try Casting the column to int on the select statement. Thanks.