SQL Server 2008 R2: Trigger on `TEXT` column

Question

I have the table which consist of column with datatype text .

Table EmployeeMaster

CREATE TABLE [EmployeeMaster]
(
    EmpID int identity(1,1),
    EmpName varchar(20),
    EmpPhone int,
    EmpAddress TEXT
);

And I want to create audit log on this table.

Audit Table : EmployeeMaster_Audit

CREATE TABLE [EmployeeMaster_Audit]
(
    EmpID int,
    EmpName varchar(20),
    EmpPhone int,
    EmpAddress VARCHAR(MAX)
);

Writing trigger for INSERT.

Trigger :

CREATE TRIGGER [dbo].[EmployeeMaster_Insert]
ON [dbo].[EmployeeMaster]
FOR INSERT   
AS   

 INSERT INTO [dbo].[EmployeeMaster_Audit]
([EmpID], [EmpName], [EmpPhone], [EmpAddress])
SELECT CONVERT(int,[EmpID]) as [EmpID],[EmpName],[EmpPhone],CONVERT(varchar(max),[EmpAddress]) AS [EmpAddress]  FROM INSERTED 
GO

Error Details : While creating trigger getting following error:

Cannot use text, ntext, or image columns in the 'inserted' and 'deleted' tables.

My Try : CONVERT(varchar(max),[EmpAddress])

Answer 1

Since the trigger is fired after the insert, you can simply query back to the EmployeeMaster to get the inserted data. Something like this:

CREATE TRIGGER [dbo].[EmployeeMaster_Insert]
ON [dbo].[EmployeeMaster]
FOR INSERT   
AS   

INSERT INTO [dbo].[EmployeeMaster_Audit] ([EmpID], [EmpName], [EmpPhone], [EmpAddress])
SELECT  EM.[EmpID]
,       EM.[EmpName]
,       EM.[EmpPhone]
,       CONVERT(varchar(max), EM.[EmpAddress]) AS [EmpAddress]  
FROM    INSERTED I
INNER JOIN  dbo.[EmployeeMaster] EM
        ON  EM.[EmpID] = I.[EmpID]
GO

This is assuming you cannot change the text datatype, see Zohar's answer.

Answer 2

The correct solution to the problem would be to replace the text column with a varchar(max) column.

The Image , Text , and nText data types are deprecated since 2008 version introduced varbinary(max) , varchar(max) and nvarchar(max) .

For more information, read Microsoft official documentation page on ntext, text, and image (Transact-SQL) :

IMPORTANT! ntext , text , and image data types will be removed in a future version of SQL Server. Avoid using these data types in new development work, and plan to modify applications that currently use them. Use nvarchar(max) , varchar(max) , and varbinary(max) instead.