SQL String Functions

The SQL Server provides various String Functions. These functions allow us to alter the individual characters in a string, compare two, search for a substring, extract substrings, and copy. You can also use these String Functions to convert them to lowercase or uppercase.

A string is a group of charters stored in Varchar or Nvarchar data type, which is useful to store names, product descriptions, etc. The SQL functions enable you to manipulate the string data by searching for the given substring and replacing it or adding so on. This article shows you the available list of string functions and their definitions.

SQL String Functions

The following table will show you the list of available String Functions. Use those links to see the practical example for each one of the string functions.

Functions	Description
ASCII	It returns the ASCII code of the leftmost character of a character expression.
CHAR	Convert the integer value (ASCII code) to a character
CHARINDEX	It returns the index position of a specified expression
CONCAT	Combine or concatenate two or more and return the string.
CONCAT_WS	This function concatenates two or more SQL Server words using a separator.
DIFFERENCE	Return the difference between the SOUNDEX values of the specified character expressions
FORMAT	Format the expression with the specified format.
LEN	To find the length of a specified expression
LEFT	Returns the leftmost characters from the specified expression
LTRIM	It removes the empty spaces from the Left side of a character’s expression
LOWER	It converts the given text or expression to Lowercase.
NCHAR	It returns the Unicode character at the specified integer value
QUOTENAME	It returns the Unicode with the delimiters
REPLACE	We can use this SQL Server function to replace the existing string with a new value.
REPLICATE	Repeat the existing sentence a given number of times.
REVERSE	It helps to reverse the specified expression
RIGHT	Return the rightmost characters from a given expression
RTRIM	It removes empty spaces from the Right-hand side of a given expression.
PATINDEX	It is used to return the starting index position of the first occurrence of a pattern in an expression.
SOUNDEX	This SQL String function returns the SOUNDEX code.
SPACE	Returns the string of repeated spaces.
STR	It returns the string representation of the numeric expression.
STRING_ESCAPE	It escapes the special characters from the text.
STRING_SPLIT	Split the character expression using the separator.
STRING_AGG	It concatenates the string expressions and places a specified separator in between them.
STUFF	Insert one string inside another string
SUBSTRING	It returns a specified number of characters from the given expression.
TRANSLATE	It translates the string expression by replacing the specified characters with a new set of characters.
TRIM	Remove the empty spaces from both the right and left sides.
UNICODE	Return the Unicode (integer) value, as defined in Unicode standards.
UPPER	This function converts the given text or expression to Uppercase.