Can You post the SELECT itself?
If You have something like:
SELECT ... IIF(...,SPACE(8), FieldContaningGG-12121A) AS Field ....
The Select will truncate the field to 8 chars IF the first occurance match the TRUE condition of the IIF().
Against Stupidity the Gods themselves Contend in Vain - Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller
The only thing normal about database guys is their tables.