Inconsistencies in the SSMS Interface

  • Article

I find SSMS to be much more flexible that SQL Server 7.0/2000 Enterprise Manager (SEM) however there are some really basic UI features which should be fixed.  The display of data types, in particular LOB such as varchar(max) is not consistent through the UI.  For example, in the object explorer I can see varchar(max) in the column hierarchy, sp_columns will represent this as TEXT, sp_help <table> displays varchar and finally the publication wizard also displays the type as varchar.  This is particularly frustrating when a DBA needs to de-select LOB data types from the article and the data type is not displayed correctly. 

sp_columns:

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sp_help:

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object explorer:

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publication wizard:

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