CHARINDEX start position finds the next delimiter. Guard a missing first match, preserve NULL, and extract empty fields without negative lengths.
PATINDEX and CHARINDEX: Pattern or Literal Search
PATINDEX and CHARINDEX answer different questions. Compare wildcard patterns with literal searches, preserve NULL, and pin collation for digit ranges.
Simple CASE and NULL: Use a Searched Condition
Simple CASE and NULL do not match through equality. Use a searched IS NULL branch, preserve empty text, and make the result type explicit.
UNICODE: Supplementary Characters Depend on the Collation
UNICODE returns an integer for the first character, and supplementary-character support affects that integer. I make the collation explicit when interpreting those values. Otherwise the same visible input can produce a misleading comparison.
Matching Two Customer Lists When Names and Emails Are Messy
Clean the text, climb from safe rules to fuzzy ones, and keep one best answer per subscriber. A ladder of joins you can paste into SSMS today.
SQL SERVER – Do Not Store Images in Database – Store Location of Images (URL)
Should you store images in database tables? My advice: keep the image location (URL) in a VARCHAR column instead, so the database stays small and updates stay simple.







