Comments on: SQL SERVER – SPACE Function Example

By: Ashok Kumar

Ashok Kumar — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 10:40:54 +0000

After using len() function the length of code field show two different value. This data is import from excel to sql server.
How to find the character which not shown in code but count in len() function.

Code Length
P42400020 9
P42400020 10

By: Roshan

Roshan — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 09:48:17 +0000

Thanks useful tip

Roshan from Sri Lanka

By: Marc

Marc — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 16:03:33 +0000

Great tip, as always.

Do you think there is any value in using the space function instead of a ” if you want to return an empty string?

By: Sandeep

Sandeep — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 12:48:45 +0000

Hello
Please any one tell me
Can i change face,size or color of my data using such inbuilt functions ?
and how?

Thanx in advance

Sandeep

By: Jorge

Jorge — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 16:40:47 +0000

You’re right.

Thank You for your patience.

By: Tony

Tony — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 15:16:58 +0000

Jorge,

All your examples work just fine. Try these examples:

SELECT LEN(SPACE(5-3));
SELECT LEN(SPACE(5-3) + ‘X’);
SELECT DATALENGTH(SPACE(5-3));
SELECT DATALENGTH(SPACE(5-3) + ‘X’);

If you lookup the LEN function you will see that it states these two things:

Returns the number of characters of the specified string expression, excluding trailing blanks.

To return the number of bytes used to represent an expression, use the DATALENGTH function.

This is obviously a case of RTM.

By: Jorge

Jorge — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 12:16:29 +0000

What a wonderfull workaroud that is… why other DB makers didnt do it that way ?????

Did you know that in MS Access, space(5-3) works as expected ?

Still… This is a bug (a naive one), no matter what ‘a’, ‘b’ or ‘c’ is appended to the end, appending a space, doesnt work again…

By: Madhivanan

Madhivanan — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 12:44:07 +0000

Jorge,

FYI, it works well

select space(5-3)+’a’

DECLARE @spc as int
SET @spc = 5
SELECT space(@spc)+’a’

By: Jorge

Jorge — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 12:05:44 +0000

its sad that this doesnt work:

space(5-3)

this returns a string with no spaces :(

SELECT LEN(space(5-3)) -> 0

neither this works:

DECLARE @spc as int
SET @spc = 5
SELECT space(@spc)

You want SQL Server to be taken seriously ????????????????

By: Mark Johnson

Mark Johnson — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 23:40:12 +0000

Yes very good tip

By: Carmelo Lisciotto

Carmelo Lisciotto — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 17:40:23 +0000

Good tip!

Carmelo Lisciotto