title: Remove last character from string column in SQL Server CE
body: <p>In SQL Server Compact, I'm trying to remove a trailing comma that came from a goof which affected several thousand rows of a <code>NVARCHAR</code> column.</p>
  
  <pre><code>UPDATE myTable 
  SET col = LEFT(col, LEN(col)-1) 
  WHERE col LIKE '%,';
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>throws the error:</p>
  
  <blockquote>
    <p><em>There was an error parsing the query. [ Token in error = LEFT ]</em></p>
  </blockquote>
  
  <p>Can SQL Server CE not parse that query? Or, can someone offer another approach?</p>
  
  <p>Note: I tried this in <a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/compactview/" rel="noreferrer">CompactView</a>, I'm not sure if that's the problem.</p>