T-SQL

SQLServerCentral Article

T-SQL in SQL Server 2025: Concatenating Strings

  • Article

Like many of you, I have often put strings together (concatenation) with a simple arithmetical operator: +.  We have a few other ways to put strings together, but in SQL Server 2025, we have a new operator that allows us to put strings together. This is the double pipe (||) operator. This article looks at […]

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2025-11-14

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External Article

SQL Server CROSS APPLY and OUTER APPLY Helpful Examples

  • Article

Microsoft introduced the APPLY operator in SQL Server 2005. Similar to a JOIN, it allows correlation between two table expressions. The key difference between the JOIN and APPLY operators is when you have a table-valued expression on the right side and want to evaluate it for each row from the left table expression. Since they produce similar results, when do you choose an APPLY versus a JOIN?

2025-11-07

External Article

T‑SQL BULK INSERT vs OPENROWSET: CSV Imports, File Access Gotchas, and A PowerShell Script

  • Article

Most SQL bulk insert and SQL Server openrowset tutorials skip file access issues that can stop imports cold. Both the bulk insert statement and openrowset function rely on the SQL Server service account to read a source file. The SQL Server service account must have read permission on the file or its folder. It is also convenient to have read & execute as well as list folder content permissions.

2025-10-17

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The Large Encoded Value

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Question of the Day

The Large Encoded Value

I want to use the new BASE64_ENCODE() function in SQL Server 2025, but return a string that isn't large type. What is the longest varbinary string I can pass in and still get a varchar(8000) returned?

See possible answers