[sql-server] How to concatenate two strings in SQL Server 2005

I want to concatenate the words "dummy's" and "dock".

How can I concatenate them in SQL Server 2005? Does it support double quotes?

This question is related to sql-server

The answer is


Try this:

DECLARE @COMBINED_STRINGS AS VARCHAR(50); -- Allocate just enough length for the two strings.

SET @COMBINED_STRINGS = 'rupesh''s' + 'malviya';
SELECT @COMBINED_STRINGS; -- Print your combined strings.

Or you can put your strings into variables. Such that:

DECLARE @COMBINED_STRINGS AS VARCHAR(50),
        @STRING1 AS VARCHAR(20),
        @STRING2 AS VARCHAR(20);

SET @STRING1 = 'rupesh''s';
SET @STRING2 = 'malviya';
SET @COMBINED_STRINGS = @STRING1 + @STRING2;

SELECT @COMBINED_STRINGS; 

Output:

rupesh'smalviya

Just add a space in your string as a separator.


so if you have a table with a row like:

firstname lastname
Bill      smith

you can do something like

select firstname + ' ' + lastname from thetable

and you will get "Bill Smith"


Try something like

SELECT 'rupesh''s' + 'malviya'

+ (String Concatenation)


DECLARE @COMBINED_STRINGS AS VARCHAR(50),
        @STRING1 AS VARCHAR(20),
        @STRING2 AS VARCHAR(20);

SET @STRING1 = 'rupesh''s';
SET @STRING2 = 'malviya';
SET @COMBINED_STRINGS = @STRING1 + @STRING2;

SELECT @COMBINED_STRINGS;

SELECT '2' + '3';

I typed this in a sql file named TEST.sql and I run it. I got the following out put.

+-------------------+
| @COMBINED_STRINGS |
+-------------------+
|                 0 |
+-------------------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)

+-----------+
| '2' + '3' |
+-----------+
|         5 |
+-----------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)

After looking into this issue a bit more I found the best and sure sort way for string concatenation in SQL is by using CONCAT method. So I made the following changes in the same file.

#DECLARE @COMBINED_STRINGS AS VARCHAR(50),
 #       @STRING1 AS VARCHAR(20),
 #       @STRING2 AS VARCHAR(20);

SET @STRING1 = 'rupesh''s';
SET @STRING2 = 'malviya';
#SET @COMBINED_STRINGS = @STRING1 + @STRING2;
SET @COMBINED_STRINGS = (SELECT CONCAT(@STRING1, @STRING2));

SELECT @COMBINED_STRINGS;

#SELECT '2' + '3';
SELECT CONCAT('2','3');

and after executing the file this was the output.

+-------------------+
| @COMBINED_STRINGS |
+-------------------+
| rupesh'smalviya   |
+-------------------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)

+-----------------+
| CONCAT('2','3') |
+-----------------+
| 23              |
+-----------------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)

SQL version I am using is: 14.14


I got a easy solution which will select from database table and let you do easily.

SELECT b.FirstName + b.LastName FROM tbl_Users b WHERE b.Id='11'

You can easily add a space there if you try

SELECT b.FirstName +' '+ b.LastName FROM Users b WHERE b.Id='23'

Here you can combine as much as your table have.


To concatenate two strings in 2008 or prior:

SELECT ISNULL(FirstName, '') + ' ' + ISNULL(SurName, '')

good to use ISNULL because "String + NULL" will give you a NULL only

One more thing: Make sure you are concatenating strings otherwise use a CAST operator:

SELECT 2 + 3 

Will give 5

SELECT '2' + '3'

Will give 23