>Hi,
>
>I have this issue on SQL2k readtext issue.
>I have some data column in ntext data type.
>I need to read that column and write it into another table column
>of similar data type.
>
>01) However, I cannot find any way to read and store that ntext data
>to some local variable and then write it to my new column.
>The readtext found will read out but I can't feature out
>how to write it to another column through a temporarily variable.
>
>02) Next, for the readtext, we need to give the offset and no of
>byte to read, is there any know method to read all my data from
>colum without specify the size to read
>like readtext ===> test_tbl1.desc @old_ptr 0 datalength(desc)/2 ?
>
>Please advise and help. Thank you
>
>Here is my sample 01)
>
>declare @old_ptr binary(16)
>
>select @old_ptr = textptr(desc)
>from test_tbl1 where emp_no = 12345
>
>readtext test_tbl1.desc @old_ptr 0 0 <---- here is the record value
>
>-- write to a new table of old value
>declare @new_ptr binary(16)
>select @new_ptr = textptr(desc)
>from test_tbl2 where emp_no = 12345
>
>writetext test_tbl2.desc @new_ptr (readtext test_tbl1.desc @old_ptr 0 0) <----- this part is not working

Aren't the direct update doesn't works?
Becuase i have only SQL Server 2005 installed on my home computer I am not sure. Try:

UPDATE test_tbl2 SET Desc = (SELECT Desc FROM test_tbl1 WHERE emp_no = 12345) WHERE emp_no = 12345

That is only for testing, if you are updating many rows the join is the solution (if the direct update works on SQL2K)