ToString (Database Engine)
Applies to:
SQL Server
Azure SQL Database
Azure SQL Managed Instance
Returns a string with the logical representation of this. ToString is called implicitly when a conversion from hierarchyid to a string type occurs. Acts as the opposite of Parse (Database Engine).
Syntax
-- Transact-SQL syntax
node.ToString ( )
-- This is functionally equivalent to the following syntax
-- which implicitly calls ToString():
CAST(node AS nvarchar(4000))
-- CLR syntax
string ToString ( )
Note
To view Transact-SQL syntax for SQL Server 2014 (12.x) and earlier versions, see Previous versions documentation.
Return types
SQL Server return type:nvarchar(4000)
CLR return type:String
Remarks
Returns the logical location in the hierarchy. For example, /2/1/
represents the fourth row ( Microsoft SQL Server) in the following hierarchical structure of a file system:
/ C:\
/1/ C:\Database Files
/2/ C:\Program Files
/2/1/ C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server
/2/2/ C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio
/3/ C:\Windows
Examples
A. Transact-SQL example in a table
The following example returns both the OrgNode
column as both the hierarchyid data type and in the more readable string format:
SELECT OrgNode,
OrgNode.ToString() AS Node
FROM HumanResources.EmployeeDemo
ORDER BY OrgNode ;
GO
Here is the result set.
OrgNode Node
0x /
0x58 /1/
0x5AC0 /1/1/
0x5B40 /1/2/
0x5BC0 /1/3/
0x5C20 /1/4/
...
B. Converting Transact-SQL values without a table
The following code example uses ToString
to convert a hierarchyid value to a string, and Parse
to convert a string value to a hierarchyid.
DECLARE @StringValue AS nvarchar(4000), @hierarchyidValue AS hierarchyid
SET @StringValue = '/1/1/3/'
SET @hierarchyidValue = 0x5ADE
SELECT hierarchyid::Parse(@StringValue) AS hierarchyidRepresentation,
@hierarchyidValue.ToString() AS StringRepresentation ;
GO
Here is the result set.
hierarchyidRepresentation StringRepresentation
------------------------- -----------------------
0x5ADE /1/1/3/
C. CLR example
The following code snippet calls the ToString() method:
this.ToString()
See also
hierarchyid Data Type Method Reference
Hierarchical Data (SQL Server)
hierarchyid (Transact-SQL)