SQL: Strings Support

Handling strings in SQL requires an understanding of basic string syntax, from declaring tables with character columns, to entering strings in SQL for inserting, updating, or searching for rows. 

But that's just the start. Databases also have a huge assortment of string functions, from simple concatenation to SUBSTRING, LENGTH, and a variety of even more powerful functions.

In this article, Rudy reviews the basic syntax and gives several tips for working successfully with strings, and then provides a number of examples of string functions in action, examples which you may think might only ever be solved with application scripting logic but which, upon closer inspection, can be accomplished with string functions in single queries.