String operators (Transact-SQL)

Applies to: SQL Server Azure SQL Database Azure SQL Managed Instance Azure Synapse Analytics Analytics Platform System (PDW) SQL analytics endpoint in Microsoft Fabric Warehouse in Microsoft Fabric SQL database in Microsoft Fabric

SQL Server provides the following string operators. String concatenation operators can combine two or more of the following data types into one expression:

• character or binary strings
• columns
• combination of strings and column names

Wildcard string operators can match one or more characters in a string comparison operation. LIKE and PATINDEX are examples of two of these operations.

In this section

• = (String comparison or assignment)
• + (String concatenation)
• += (String concatenation assignment)
• % (Wildcard - character(s) to match)
• [ ] (Wildcard - character(s) to match)
• [^] (Wildcard - character(s) not to match)
• _ (Wildcard - match one character)