The answer is very simple – the equalent function in SQL Server to CONCAT() is ‘+’ (plus operator without quotes).

Method 1: Concatenating two strings

SELECT 'FirstName' + ' ' + 'LastName' AS FullName


Method 2: Concatenating two Numbers

SELECT CAST(1 AS VARCHAR(10)) + 'R' + CAST(2 AS VARCHAR(10))

Method 3: Concatenating values from table columns

SELECT FirstName + ' ' + LastName
FROM AdventureWorks.Person.Contact

Well, this may look very simple but sometime it is very difficult to find the information for simple things only.

Do you have any such example which you would like to share with community?

Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com)

CREATE PROCEDURE [dbo].[CleanDataFromAlpha]
@alpha VARCHAR(50),
@decimal DECIMAL(14, 5) OUTPUT
AS BEGIN
SET NOCOUNT ON;
DECLARE @ErrorMsg VARCHAR(50)
DECLARE @Pos INT
DECLARE @CommaPos INT
DECLARE @ZeroExists INT
DECLARE @alphaReverse VARCHAR(50)
DECLARE @NumPos INT
DECLARE @Len INT
-- 1 Reverse the alpha in order to get the last position of a numeric value
SET @alphaReverse = REVERSE(@alpha)
-- 2 Get the last position of a numeric figure
SET @NumPos = PATINDEX('%[0-9]%', @alphaReverse)
-- 3 Get the lenght of the string
SET @Len = LEN(@alpha)
-- 4 Add a comma after the numeric data in case it's no decimal number
SET @alpha = SUBSTRING(@alpha, 1, (@Len - @NumPos + 1))
+ ','
+ SUBSTRING(@alpha, (@Len - @NumPos + 2), 50)
-- Check if there is a zero (0) in the @alpha, then we later set the @decimal to 0
-- if it's 0 after the handling, else we set @decimal to NULL
-- If 0 no match, else there is a match
SET @ZeroExists = CHARINDEX ( '0' , @alpha ,1 )
-- Find position of , (comma)
SET @CommaPos = 1
SET @CommaPos = PATINDEX('%,%', @alpha)
IF (@CommaPos = '') BEGIN
SET @CommaPos = 20
END
SET @Pos = PATINDEX('%[^0-9]%',@alpha)
-- Replaces any aplha with '0' since we otherwice can't keep track of where the decimal
-- should be put in. We assume the numeric number has no aplhe inside. The regular way
-- to solve this is to replace with ”, but then we miss the way to find the place to
-- put in the decimal.
WHILE (@Pos > 0) BEGIN
SET @alpha = STUFF(@alpha, @pos, 1, '0')
SET @Pos = PATINDEX('%[^0-9]%',@alpha)
END
IF (@alpha IS NOT NULL AND @alpha != '') BEGIN
SET @decimal = CONVERT(DECIMAL(14, 5), SUBSTRING(@alpha, 1, (@CommaPos - 1))
+ '.'
+ SUBSTRING(@alpha, (@CommaPos + 1), 20))
END
-- Since we in this case don't want to set 0 if where is no numeric value, we set NULL to be safe
IF (@decimal = 0 AND @ZeroExists = 0) BEGIN
SET @decimal = NULL
END
END
GO

If you run above SP as shown below it will work
DECLARE @myRetVal DECIMAL(14,5)
EXEC [CleanDataFromAlpha] 'ABC355,88ghf', @myRetVal OUTPUT
SELECT @myRetVal ReturnValue

ReturnValue
---------------------------------------
355.88000

(1 row(s) affected)

I once again want to thanks Christofer for his excellent contribution.

Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com)

DECLARE @StringVar VARCHAR(100)
SET @StringVar = ' anything '
SELECT CASE CHARINDEX(' ', LTRIM(@StringVar), 1)
WHEN 0 THEN LTRIM(@StringVar)
ELSE SUBSTRING(LTRIM(@StringVar), 1, CHARINDEX(' ',LTRIM(@StringVar), 1) - 1)
END FirstWordofSentence


Above script can be converted to User Defined Function which you can later use in SELECT statement as well. Here is how you can convert it to UDF and use it afterwords.

CREATE FUNCTION GetFirstWord (@StringVar VARCHAR(MAX))
RETURNS VARCHAR(MAX)
AS
BEGIN
DECLARE @rtStringVar VARCHAR(MAX)
SELECT @rtStringVar = CASE CHARINDEX(' ', LTRIM(@StringVar), 1)
WHEN 0 THEN LTRIM(@StringVar)
ELSE SUBSTRING(LTRIM(@StringVar), 1, CHARINDEX(' ',LTRIM(@StringVar), 1) - 1)
END
RETURN @rtStringVar
END
GO
--Usage of Function
SELECT dbo.GetFirstWord ('') AS FirstWordofSentence;
SELECT dbo.GetFirstWord (' Space Before') AS FirstWordofSentence;
SELECT dbo.GetFirstWord ('Long Statement') AS FirstWordofSentence;
SELECT dbo.GetFirstWord ('SingleWord') AS FirstWordofSentence;

You can see in the resultset where it will find the very first word of the any sentence.

Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com)

Here is quick example which provides you two different details.

• How many times the character/word exists in string?
• How many total characters exists in Occurrence?

Let us see following example and it will clearly explain it to you.

DECLARE @LongSentence VARCHAR(MAX)
DECLARE @FindSubString VARCHAR(MAX)
SET @LongSentence = 'My Super Long String With Long Words'
SET @FindSubString = 'long'
SELECT (LEN(@LongSentence) - LEN(REPLACE(@LongSentence, @FindSubString, ''))) CntReplacedChars,
(LEN(@LongSentence) - LEN(REPLACE(@LongSentence, @FindSubString, '')))/LEN(@FindSubString) CntOccuranceChars

This will return following resultset.

CntReplacedChars     CntOccuranceChars
-------------------- --------------------
2                    2

If there is single word to find in the character, both the answer will be same. Here is the example of the same.

DECLARE @LongSentence VARCHAR(MAX)
DECLARE @FindSubString VARCHAR(MAX)
SET @LongSentence = 'My Super Long String With Long Words'
SET @FindSubString = 'o'
SELECT (LEN(@LongSentence) - LEN(REPLACE(@LongSentence, @FindSubString, ''))) CntReplacedChars,
(LEN(@LongSentence) - LEN(REPLACE(@LongSentence, @FindSubString, '')))/LEN(@FindSubString) CntOccuranceChars

This will return following resultset.

CntReplacedChars     CntOccuranceChars
-------------------- --------------------
3                    3

I hope using this hint along with recursive CTE you will be able to solve the T-SQL Challenge. Additionally, make sure that your strings does not have leading or trailing empty spaces. If you have it, you may want to use LTRIM or RTRIM functions.

Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com)

Two blogs which I am going to mention here are as follows: SELECT Blog FROM Brad.Schulz CROSS APPLY SQL.Server() – Brad Schulz and Demystifying SQL Server – Adam Haines. Before continuing this blog post, I suggest you all to bookmark these blogs for future reference.

The whole thing started when Adam tried to answer the question “How to transform a delimited values into columns?” on MSDN SQL Forum. Adam made the first blog post here http://jahaines.blogspot.com/2009/06/converting-delimited-string-of-values.html and then Brad and Adam bounced a few ideas off the wall. Then, Adam started his series on concatenating column values http://jahaines.blogspot.com/2009/06/concatenating-column-values-part-1.html, and http://jahaines.blogspot.com/2009/07/concatenating-column-values-part-2.html.  In part two of the series, Brad wanted to get a deeper understanding of why the results came out the way they did. Adam then started another series on unpacking or parsing out delimited characters, http://jahaines.blogspot.com/2009/11/splitting-delimited-string-part-1.html and here http://jahaines.blogspot.com/2009/12/splitting-delimited-string-part-2.html.  From here, Brad started digging even deeper into the internals of the XML method. Brad has a comprehensive list of the back and forth on this post, http://bradsruminations.blogspot.com/2009/12/delimited-string-tennis-anyone.html and a final post here http://bradsruminations.blogspot.com/2010/01/delimited-string-tennis-again-final.html.

The final outcome is that both the XML method and number table can perform equally, but the XML method has to be coded in a very particular way; otherwise performance will be horrendous. Also, the permanent number table shows consistently more performance than the inline number table; however, on smaller string sizes, the difference here is that most of the inline number tables require more CPU and RAM, whereas the permanent number table requires more IO. For an average developer, the number table solution is probably the easiest of the solutions to implement.

Overall, I strongly suggest to go through the abovementioned posts; you will love it and become their fan. Please note these posts are very easy to understand and if you know a bit of XML only, you will still be able to understand them very well. The above description has been taken with proper consent of the Adam and Brad.

Hats Off to you Guys! You guys inspire me and many SQL enthusiasts!

Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com)

Filed under: Pinal Dave, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Function, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL String, SQL Tips and Tricks, SQL XML, SQLAuthority Website Review, T SQL, Technology ]]> http://blog.sqlauthority.com/2010/02/10/sqlauthority-news-converting-a-delimited-string-of-values-into-columns/feed/ 2 pinaldave http://blog.sqlauthority.com/2009/12/21/sql-server-comma-separated-values-csv-from-table-column-part-2/ http://blog.sqlauthority.com/2009/12/21/sql-server-comma-separated-values-csv-from-table-column-part-2/#comments Mon, 21 Dec 2009 01:30:58 +0000 pinaldave http://blog.sqlauthority.com/?p=7575 ]]> In my earlier post, I wrote about how one can use XML to convert table to string SQL SERVER – Comma Separated Values (CSV) from Table Column. The same article is also published on channel 9 SQLAuthority News – Featured on Channel 9. One of the very interesting points that was discussed on show was about the usage of function SUBSTRING. I found the following point very valid: SUBSTRING usage limits the length of the XML to be used.

I have re-written the same function with function STUFF, and it removes any limit imposed on the script.

USE AdventureWorks
GO
-- Check Table Column
SELECT [Name]
FROM HumanResources.Shift
GO
-- Get CSV values
SELECT STUFF(
(SELECT ',' + s.Name
FROM HumanResources.Shift s
ORDER BY s.Name
FOR XML PATH('')),1,1,'') AS CSV
GO

Do let me know your thoughts on the same.

Reference : Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com)

The article which was featured in the show is SQL SERVER – Comma Separated Values (CSV) from Table Column.

Here are few screenshot from the show.

Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com)

Posted in About Me, Database, Pinal Dave, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL String, SQL Tips and Tricks, SQLAuthority News, SQLAuthority Website Review, T SQL, Technology ]]> http://blog.sqlauthority.com/2009/12/12/sqlauthority-news-featured-on-channel-9/feed/ 16 pinaldave http://blog.sqlauthority.com/2009/01/15/sql-server-remove-duplicate-entry-from-comma-delimited-string-udf/ http://blog.sqlauthority.com/2009/01/15/sql-server-remove-duplicate-entry-from-comma-delimited-string-udf/#comments Thu, 15 Jan 2009 01:30:44 +0000 pinaldave http://blog.sqlauthority.com/?p=2035 ]]> I love reader’s contribution this blog as that brings variety in articles. I encourage my readers to provide their contribution and I will publish then with their name.

Blog Reader Ashish Jain has posted very simple script which will remove duplicate entry from comma delimited string. User Defined Function has very simple logic behind it. It takes comma delimited string and then converts it to table and runs DISTINCT operation on the table. DISTINCT operation removes duplicate value. After that it converts the table again into the string and it can be used.

I have modified original contribution from Ashish so now it completely covers the subject intended to cover. I would suggest that this UDF should be kept handy to perform this tedious task easily.

CREATE FUNCTION dbo.DistinctList
(
@List VARCHAR(MAX),
@Delim CHAR
)
RETURNS
VARCHAR(MAX)
AS
BEGIN
DECLARE @ParsedList TABLE
(
Item VARCHAR(MAX)
)
DECLARE @list1 VARCHAR(MAX), @Pos INT, @rList VARCHAR(MAX)
SET @list = LTRIM(RTRIM(@list)) + @Delim
SET @pos = CHARINDEX(@delim, @list, 1)
WHILE @pos > 0
BEGIN
SET @list1 = LTRIM(RTRIM(LEFT(@list, @pos - 1)))
IF @list1 <> ''
INSERT INTO @ParsedList VALUES (CAST(@list1 AS VARCHAR(MAX)))
SET @list = SUBSTRING(@list, @pos+1, LEN(@list))
SET @pos = CHARINDEX(@delim, @list, 1)
END
SELECT @rlist = COALESCE(@rlist+',','') + item
FROM (SELECT DISTINCT Item FROM @ParsedList) t
RETURN @rlist
END
GO
SELECT dbo.DistinctList('342,34,456,34,3454,456,aa,bb,cc,aa',',') DistinctList
GO

I encourage my readers to send their contribution as well so I can include their contribution as well.

Reference : Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com)

CREATE FUNCTION dbo.udf_GetNumeric
(@strAlphaNumeric VARCHAR(256))
RETURNS VARCHAR(256)
AS
BEGIN
DECLARE @intAlpha INT
SET @intAlpha = PATINDEX('%[^0-9]%', @strAlphaNumeric)
BEGIN
WHILE @intAlpha > 0
BEGIN
SET @strAlphaNumeric = STUFF(@strAlphaNumeric, @intAlpha, 1, '' )
SET @intAlpha = PATINDEX('%[^0-9]%', @strAlphaNumeric )
END
END
RETURN ISNULL(@strAlphaNumeric,0)
END
GO

/* Run the UDF with different test values */
SELECT dbo.udf_GetNumeric('') AS 'EmptyString';
SELECT dbo.udf_GetNumeric('asdf1234a1s2d3f4@@@') AS 'asdf1234a1s2d3f4@@@';
SELECT dbo.udf_GetNumeric('123456') AS '123456';
SELECT dbo.udf_GetNumeric('asdf') AS 'asdf';
SELECT dbo.udf_GetNumeric(NULL) AS 'NULL';
GO

As result of above script self explainary, I will be not describing it in detail. If you use any alternative method to do the same task, please let me know.

Reference : Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com)

I found following script posted by Russ and Erik. It is modified a bit from original script.

CREATE FUNCTION dbo.LTrimX(@str VARCHAR(MAX)) RETURNS VARCHAR(MAX)
AS
BEGIN
DECLARE @trimchars VARCHAR(10)
SET @trimchars = CHAR(9)+CHAR(10)+CHAR(13)+CHAR(32)
IF @str LIKE '[' + @trimchars + ']%' SET @str = SUBSTRING(@str, PATINDEX('%[^' + @trimchars + ']%', @str), 8000)
RETURN @str
END
GO
CREATE FUNCTION dbo.RTrimX(@str VARCHAR(MAX)) RETURNS VARCHAR(MAX)
AS
BEGIN
DECLARE @trimchars VARCHAR(10)
SET @trimchars = CHAR(9)+CHAR(10)+CHAR(13)+CHAR(32)
IF @str LIKE '%[' + @trimchars + ']'
SET @str = REVERSE(dbo.LTrimX(REVERSE(@str)))
RETURN @str
END
GO
CREATE FUNCTION dbo.TrimX(@str VARCHAR(MAX)) RETURNS VARCHAR(MAX)
AS
BEGIN
RETURN dbo.LTrimX(dbo.RTrimX(@str))
END
GO
/* Run the created function */
SELECT dbo.TRIMX('         word leading trailing spaces           ') AS 'TrimmedWord'
GO

Running above function will give you result where there is no white spaces or any other while space like chars.

Let me know what you think about this and if this can be improved further.

Reference : Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com)

Reference : Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com)

What do I think of storing images in database and what kind of datatype he should use?

I have very strong opinion about this issue.

I suggest to store the location of the images in the database using VARCHAR datatype instead of any BLOB or other binary datatype.

Storing the database location reduces the size of database greatly as well updating or replacing the image are much simpler as it is just an file operation instead of massive update/insert/delete in database.

Reference : Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com)

CREATE FUNCTION dbo.REMOVE_DUPLICATE_INSTR
(@datalen_tocheck INT,@string VARCHAR(255))
RETURNS VARCHAR(255)
AS
BEGIN
DECLARE @str VARCHAR(255)
DECLARE @count INT
DECLARE @start INT
DECLARE @result VARCHAR(255)
DECLARE @end INT
SET @start=1
SET @end=@datalen_tocheck
SET @count=@datalen_tocheck
SET @str = @string
WHILE (@count <=255)
BEGIN
IF (@result IS NULL)
BEGIN
SET @result=''
END
SET @result=@result+SUBSTRING(@str,@start,@end)
SET @str=REPLACE(@str,SUBSTRING(@str,@start,@end),'')
SET @count=@count+@datalen_tocheck
END
RETURN @result
END
GO>, 1)
Usage:
SET CONCAT_NULL_YIELDS_NULL OFF

SELECT dbo.Remove_duplicate_instr(<CHARacter length OF a

duplicate SUBSTRING >,<string contain duplicate>)
Example:
To keep char set in a string unique and remove duplicate 3 char long string run this UDF as inline function.

SET CONCAT_NULL_YIELDS_NULL OFF

SELECT dbo.Remove_duplicate_instr(3,f123456789123456456
Resultset:
123456789

Reference : Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com), Virendra Chauhan (DBA)

SELECT *
FROM sys.fn_HelpCollations()

Result Set: (only few of 1011 records)
Name Description
Latin1_General_BIN Latin1-General, binary sort
Latin1_General_BIN2 Latin1-General, binary code point comparison sort
Latin1_General_CI_AI Latin1-General, case-insensitive, accent-insensitive, kanatype-insensitive, width-insensitive
Latin1_General_CI_AI_WS Latin1-General, case-insensitive, accent-insensitive, kanatype-insensitive, width-sensitive
Latin1_General_CI_AI_KS Latin1-General, case-insensitive, accent-insensitive, kanatype-sensitive, width-insensitive
Latin1_General_CI_AI_KS_WS Latin1-General, case-insensitive, accent-insensitive, kanatype-sensitive, width-sensitive
Latin1_General_CI_AS Latin1-General, case-insensitive, accent-sensitive, kanatype-insensitive, width-insensitive
Latin1_General_CI_AS_WS Latin1-General, case-insensitive, accent-sensitive, kanatype-insensitive, width-sensitive
Latin1_General_CI_AS_KS Latin1-General, case-insensitive, accent-sensitive, kanatype-sensitive, width-insensitive
Latin1_General_CI_AS_KS_WS Latin1-General, case-insensitive, accent-sensitive, kanatype-sensitive, width-sensitive
Latin1_General_CS_AI Latin1-General, case-sensitive, accent-insensitive, kanatype-insensitive, width-insensitive
Latin1_General_CS_AI_WS Latin1-General, case-sensitive, accent-insensitive, kanatype-insensitive, width-sensitive
Latin1_General_CS_AI_KS Latin1-General, case-sensitive, accent-insensitive, kanatype-sensitive, width-insensitive
Latin1_General_CS_AI_KS_WS Latin1-General, case-sensitive, accent-insensitive, kanatype-sensitive, width-sensitive
Latin1_General_CS_AS Latin1-General, case-sensitive, accent-sensitive, kanatype-insensitive, width-insensitive
Latin1_General_CS_AS_WS Latin1-General, case-sensitive, accent-sensitive, kanatype-insensitive, width-sensitive
Latin1_General_CS_AS_KS Latin1-General, case-sensitive, accent-sensitive, kanatype-sensitive, width-insensitive
Latin1_General_CS_AS_KS_WS Latin1-General, case-sensitive, accent-sensitive, kanatype-sensitive, width-sensitive

Reference : Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com)

When the the length is specified in declaring a VARCHAR variable or column, the maximum length allowed is still 8000.

Fix/WorkAround/Solution: Use either VARCHAR(8000) or VARCHAR(MAX) . VARCHAR(MAX) of SQL Server 2005 is replacement of TEXT of SQL Server 2000.

Reference : Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com)

SELECT REPLICATE( ' http://www.SQLAuthority.com ' , 9 )

This repeats the string http://www.SQLAuthority.com to 9 times in result window. I think it is fun utility to generate repeated text if ever required.

Result Set:
http://www.SQLAuthority.com http://www.SQLAuthority.com http://www.SQLAuthority.com http://www.SQLAuthority.com http://www.SQLAuthority.com http://www.SQLAuthority.com http://www.SQLAuthority.com http://www.SQLAuthority.com http://www.SQLAuthority.com

(1 row(s) affected)

Reference : Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com) , BOL

It is still true for SQL Server 2005 that a table can have maximum of 8060 bytes per row however the restriction has exclusions of few data types. CLR User Defined data-types as well as varchar, nvarchar, varbinary, sql_variants are not limited to bytes per row limitation. However, those data types have limitation that they can not be more than 8000 bytes individually. In SQL Server 2005 one table row can contain more than one varchar(8000) fields. One more thing, the exclusions have exclusions also the limit of each individual column max width of 8000 bytes does not apply to varchar(max), nvarchar(max), varbinary(max), text, image or xml data type columns. Though, sum of all other other kind of data type should be less than 8060 bytes. That means one table can not have three columns with char(4000) or 100K bit field columns.

In summary in SQL Server 2005

• Table row can have more than 8060 bytes. (2GB Max)
• varchar, nvarchar, varbinary, sql_variant, or CLR user-defined type columns can have max 8000 bytes.
• varchar(max), nvarchar(max), varbinary(max), text, image or xml data type columns have no restrictions.
• All the other data type columns (other than mentioned in above three points) width addition must be still under 8060 byte row limit.
• Index can only be created which falls with-in 8060 byte row limit.

Reference : Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com) , BOL, SQL Stuff

Following UDF takes input as HTML and returns TEXT only. If there is any single quotes in HTML they should be replaced with two single quotes (not double quote) before it is passed as input to function.

CREATE FUNCTION [dbo].[udf_StripHTML]
(@HTMLText VARCHAR(MAX))
RETURNS VARCHAR(MAX)
AS
BEGIN
DECLARE @Start INT
DECLARE @End INT
DECLARE @Length INT
SET @Start = CHARINDEX('<',@HTMLText)
SET @End = CHARINDEX('>',@HTMLText,CHARINDEX('<',@HTMLText))
SET @Length = (@End - @Start) + 1
WHILE @Start > 0
AND @End > 0
AND @Length > 0
BEGIN
SET @HTMLText = STUFF(@HTMLText,@Start,@Length,'')
SET @Start = CHARINDEX('<',@HTMLText)
SET @End = CHARINDEX('>',@HTMLText,CHARINDEX('<',@HTMLText))
SET @Length = (@End - @Start) + 1
END
RETURN LTRIM(RTRIM(@HTMLText))
END
GO


Test above function like this :

SELECT dbo.udf_StripHTML('<b>UDF at SQLAuthority.com </b><br><br><a href="http://www.SQLAuthority.com">SQLAuthority.com</a>')

Result Set:

UDF at SQLAuthority.com SQLAuthority.com

If you want to see this example in action click on Image. It will open large image.

Reference : Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com)

Traditionally thinking we only create the field as long as we need. SQL Server 2005 does support VARCHAR(MAX) but does not support VARCHAR(12500). If we try to create database field with VARCHAR(12500) it gives following error.

Server: Msg 131, Level 15, State 3, Line 1
The size (12500) given to the type ‘varchar’ exceeds the maximum allowed for any data type (8000).

The solution we came up was to put constraint on the VARCHAR(MAX). SQL SERVER 2005 supports VARCHAR(MAX) and Constraint.

CREATE TABLE [dbo].[MyTestTable] ( [VarChar12500] VARCHAR(MAX) )
GO
ALTER TABLE [dbo].[MyTestTable]
ADD CONSTRAINT [MaxLengthConstraint]
CHECK (DATALENGTH([VarChar12500]) <= 12500)
GO

Reference : Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com)

“I am asked in new coding standards to use VARHCAR(MAX) instead of TEXT. Is VARCHAR(MAX) big enough to store TEXT field?”

Well, I realize that I was not clear enough in my coding standard. It is extremely important for coding standards to be clear and have a enough explanation that developer have no doubt about them. I updated coding standards after the meeting. The answer is

“Yes, VARCHAR(MAX) is big enough to accommodate TEXT field. TEXT, NTEXT and IMAGE data types of SQL Server 2000 will be deprecated in future version of SQL Server, SQL Server 2005 provides backward compatibility to data types but it is recommanded to use new data types which are VARHCAR(MAX), NVARCHAR(MAX) and VARBINARY(MAX).”

There are more reasons to use VARHCAR(MAX) though this was verbal answer to technical question in our general meeting where the focus was “Web Application Architecture and SQL Server”.

Reference : Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com)

CREATE FUNCTION dbo.UDF_ParseAlphaChars
(
@string VARCHAR(8000)
)
RETURNS VARCHAR(8000)
AS
BEGIN
DECLARE @IncorrectCharLoc SMALLINT
SET @IncorrectCharLoc = PATINDEX('%[^0-9A-Za-z]%', @string)
WHILE @IncorrectCharLoc > 0
BEGIN
SET @string = STUFF(@string, @IncorrectCharLoc, 1, '')
SET @IncorrectCharLoc = PATINDEX('%[^0-9A-Za-z]%', @string)
END
SET @string = @string
RETURN @string
END
GO

—-Test
SELECT dbo.UDF_ParseAlphaChars('ABC”_I+{D[]}4|:e;””5,<.F>/?6')
GO

Result Set : ABCID4e5F6

Reference : Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com)

Script of UDF_ReverseString function to return Reverse String.
CREATE FUNCTION UDF_ReverseString
( @StringToReverse VARCHAR(8000),
@StartPosition INT )
RETURNS VARCHAR(8000)
AS
BEGIN
IF (@StartPosition <= 0)
OR (@StartPosition > LEN(@StringToReverse))
RETURN (REVERSE(@StringToReverse))
RETURN (STUFF (@StringToReverse,
@StartPosition,
LEN(@StringToReverse) - @StartPosition + 1,
REVERSE(SUBSTRING (@StringToReverse,
@StartPosition
LEN(@StringToReverse) - @StartPosition + 1))))
END
GO

Usage of above UDF_ReverseString:

Reversing the string from third position
SELECT dbo.UDF_ReverseString('forward string',3)
Results Set : forgnirts draw

Reversing the entire string passing 0 as beginning character
SELECT dbo.UDF_ReverseString('forward string',0)
Results Set : gnirts drawrof

Reversing the entire string passing negative number as beginning character
SELECT dbo.UDF_ReverseString('forward string',-9)
Results Set : gnirts drawrof

Reversing the entire string passing larger number than string length as beginning character
SELECT dbo.UDF_ReverseString('forward string',900)
Results Set : gnirts drawrof

SQL SERVER has REVERSE Function which is used in UDF above.
If you have to reverse complete string. I would rather suggest use following script rather than using the UDF above. The purpose of the UDF is to reverse the string from certain positioned characters only.

Example for REVERSE function in SQL SERVER 2005 from BOL:
USE AdventureWorks;
GO
SELECT FirstName, REVERSE(FirstName) AS REVERSE
FROM Person.Contact
WHERE ContactID < 5
ORDER BY FirstName;
GO


FirstName Reverse
————– ————–
Catherine enirehtaC
Gustavo ovatsuG
Humberto otrebmuH
Kim miK
(4 row(s) affected)

Reference : Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com)

WHILE @Count <= LEN(@String)
BEGIN
IF SUBSTRING(@String,@Count,1) >= '0'
AND SUBSTRING(@String,@Count,1) <= '9'
BEGIN
SET @IntNumbers = @IntNumbers + SUBSTRING(@String,@Count,1)
END
SET @Count = @Count + 1
END


RETURN @IntNumbers
END
GO

Run following script in query analyzer.
SELECT dbo.ExtractInteger('My 3rd Phone Number is 323-111-CALL')
GO

It will return following values.
3323111

Reference : Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com)

Reference : Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com)

Reference : Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com)