The release of SQL Server 2022 in November 2022 introduced a bunch of new functionality, including some enhancements to the TRIM(), LTRIM() and RTRIM() functions.
The enhancements in the LTRIM() and RTRIM() functions are different to those in the TRIM() function. Below is a quick overview of the enhancements to these functions, along with examples.
In SQL Server, we can use the TRIM() function to remove leading and trailing characters from a given string.
A common use case is to remove whitespace from the start and end of the string, but we can also specify other characters to remove.
Also, as from SQL Server 2022, we can specify which side of the string to remove the characters from (i.e. leading, trailing, or both).
In SQL Server, we can use the T-SQL RTRIM() function to remove trailing blanks from a given string. Trailing blanks are white spaces, tabs, etc that come at the end of the string.
Also, as from SQL Server 2022, we can specify other trailing characters to remove from the string.
In SQL Server, we can use the T-SQL LTRIM() function to remove leading blanks from a given string.
Also, as from SQL Server 2022, we can specify other leading characters to remove from the string.
In SQL Server STRING_SPLIT() is a table-valued function that splits a string into rows of substrings, based on a specified separator character.
Each substring is returned on its own row, in a column called value.
In SQLite, substring() is an alias for substr().
It returns a substring from a string, based on a given starting location within the string. Two arguments are required, and a third optional argument is accepted.
The substring() naming was introduced in SQLite 3.34.0, which was released on 1st December 2020. The reason that the substring() syntax was introduced was for compatibility with SQL Server.
MariaDB includes two built-in functions that allow us to get the ASCII code from a given character.
In SQL, LPAD()is a commonly used function that pads the left part of a string with a specified character. The function can be used on strings and numbers, although depending on the DBMS, numbers may have to be passed as a string before they can be padded.
DBMSs that have an LPAD() function include MySQL, MariaDB, PostgreSQL, and Oracle.
DBMSs that don’t have an LPAD() function include SQL Server and SQLite (although there are other ways to apply left padding in these DBMSs).
In SQL, RPAD()is used to pad the right part of a string with a specified character. The function can be used on strings and numbers, although depending on the DBMS, numbers may have to be passed as a string before they can be padded.
DBMSs that have an RPAD() function include MySQL, MariaDB, PostgreSQL, and Oracle.
DBMSs that don’t have an RPAD() function include SQL Server and SQLite.
Many RDBMSs have an INSTR() function that enables us to find a substring within a string. Some (such as MySQL and MariaDB) also have a LOCATE() function and a POSITION() function (also supported by PostgreSQL), that do a similar thing.
SQL Server doesn’t have an INSTR() function. Nor does it have a LOCATE() or POSITION() function. But it does have the CHARINDEX() function that does the same thing.
SQL Server also has the PATINDEX() function, which does a similar job to CHARINDEX().