Find non-ASCII characters in varchar columns using SQL Server

Question

How can rows with non-ASCII characters be returned using SQL Server?
If you can show how to do it for one column would be great.

I am doing something like this

Answer 1

try something like this:

DECLARE @YourTable table (PK int, col1 varchar(20), col2 varchar(20), col3 varchar(20))
INSERT @YourTable VALUES (1, 'ok','ok','ok')
INSERT @YourTable VALUES (2, 'BA'+char(182)+'D','ok','ok')
INSERT @YourTable VALUES (3, 'ok',char(182)+'BAD','ok')
INSERT @YourTable VALUES (4, 'ok','ok','B'+char(182)+'AD')
INSERT @YourTable VALUES (5, char(182)+'BAD','ok',char(182)+'BAD')
INSERT @YourTable VALUES (6, 'BAD'+char(182),'B'+char(182)+'AD','BAD'+char(182)+char(182)+char(182))

--if you have a Numbers table use that, other wise make one using a CTE
;WITH AllNumbers AS
(   SELECT 1 AS Number
    UNION ALL
    SELECT Number+1
        FROM AllNumbers
        WHERE Number<1000
)
SELECT 
    pk, 'Col1' BadValueColumn, CONVERT(varchar(20),col1) AS BadValue --make the XYZ in convert(varchar(XYZ), ...) the largest value of col1, col2, col3
    FROM @YourTable           y
        INNER JOIN AllNumbers n ON n.Number <= LEN(y.col1)
    WHERE ASCII(SUBSTRING(y.col1, n.Number, 1))<32 OR ASCII(SUBSTRING(y.col1, n.Number, 1))>127
UNION
SELECT 
    pk, 'Col2' BadValueColumn, CONVERT(varchar(20),col2) AS BadValue --make the XYZ in convert(varchar(XYZ), ...) the largest value of col1, col2, col3
    FROM @YourTable           y
        INNER JOIN AllNumbers n ON n.Number <= LEN(y.col2)
    WHERE ASCII(SUBSTRING(y.col2, n.Number, 1))<32 OR ASCII(SUBSTRING(y.col2, n.Number, 1))>127
UNION
SELECT 
    pk, 'Col3' BadValueColumn, CONVERT(varchar(20),col3) AS BadValue --make the XYZ in convert(varchar(XYZ), ...) the largest value of col1, col2, col3
    FROM @YourTable           y
        INNER JOIN AllNumbers n ON n.Number <= LEN(y.col3)
    WHERE ASCII(SUBSTRING(y.col3, n.Number, 1))<32 OR ASCII(SUBSTRING(y.col3, n.Number, 1))>127
order by 1
OPTION (MAXRECURSION 1000)

OUTPUT:

pk          BadValueColumn BadValue
----------- -------------- --------------------
2           Col1           BA¶D
3           Col2           ¶BAD
4           Col3           B¶AD
5           Col1           ¶BAD
5           Col3           ¶BAD
6           Col1           BAD¶
6           Col2           B¶AD
6           Col3           BAD¶¶¶

(8 row(s) affected)

Answer 2

Here is a UDF I built to detectc columns with extended ascii charaters. It is quick and you can extended the character set you want to check. The second parameter allows you to switch between checking anything outside the standard character set or allowing an extended set:

create function [dbo].[udf_ContainsNonASCIIChars]
(
@string nvarchar(4000),
@checkExtendedCharset bit
)
returns bit
as
begin

    declare @pos int = 0;
    declare @char varchar(1);
    declare @return bit = 0;

    while @pos < len(@string)
    begin
        select @char = substring(@string, @pos, 1)
        if ascii(@char) < 32 or ascii(@char) > 126 
            begin
                if @checkExtendedCharset = 1
                    begin
                        if ascii(@char) not in (9,124,130,138,142,146,150,154,158,160,170,176,180,181,183,184,185,186,192,193,194,195,196,197,199,200,201,202,203,204,205,206,207,209,210,211,212,213,214,216,217,218,219,220,221,223,224,225,226,227,228,229,230,231,232,233,234,235,236,237,238,239,240,241,242,243,244,245,246,248,249,250,251,252,253,254,255)
                            begin
                                select @return = 1;
                                select @pos = (len(@string) + 1)
                            end
                        else
                            begin
                                select @pos = @pos + 1
                            end
                    end
                else
                    begin
                        select @return = 1;
                        select @pos = (len(@string) + 1)    
                    end
            end
        else
            begin
                select @pos = @pos + 1
            end
    end

    return @return;

end

USAGE:

select Address1 
from PropertyFile_English
where udf_ContainsNonASCIIChars(Address1, 1) = 1