sknox (12/7/2009)

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But in this example, SQL server isn't comparing strings at all. It's comparing integer values (the length of each string.)

The correct explanation is that SQL server ignores trailing spaces when calculating the length of a string.

select len('hello ') len_function, datalength('hello ') datalength_function

len_function datalength_function
------------ -------------------
5            6

Scott Coleman (12/7/2009)

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The LEN() function ignores trailing spaces, comparing the strings doesn't actually ignore trailing spaces but it pads the shorter string with spaces. The answer's the same either way.

Scott Coleman (12/7/2009)

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The LEN() function ignores trailing spaces, comparing the strings doesn't actually ignore trailing spaces but it pads the shorter string with spaces. The answer's the same either way.