T-SQL in SQL Server 2025: The || Operator

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T-SQL in SQL Server 2025: The || Operator

Steve Jones - SSC Editor

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December 19, 2025 at 12:00 am

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mark.hausmann Newbie Points: 9 More actions · Answer 1

Worth mentioning: the CONCAT function implicitly converts all arguments to character data types, while the + operator always chooses the cheapest possible type conversion. This often results in errors when mixing strings and numbers.

Uwe Ricken Hall of Fame Points: 3249 More actions · Answer 2

Thank you for the sum up of the new "Operator".

I believe it's beneficial to have this operator available as an ANSI standard in SQL Server. This is especially true when it comes to porting from other database systems to Microsoft SQL Server.

I'm thinking particularly of Oracle and PostgreSQL, which are significantly closer to ANSI standards than Microsoft SQL Server.

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Steve Jones - SSC Editor SSC Guru Points: 740505 More actions · Answer 3

mark.hausmann wrote:

Worth mentioning: the CONCAT function implicitly converts all arguments to character data types, while the + operator always chooses the cheapest possible type conversion. This often results in errors when mixing strings and numbers.

great point. I'll adjust the explanation

Steve Jones - SSC Editor SSC Guru Points: 740505 More actions · Answer 4

Uwe Ricken wrote:

Thank you for the sum up of the new "Operator".
I believe it's beneficial to have this operator available as an ANSI standard in SQL Server. This is especially true when it comes to porting from other database systems to Microsoft SQL Server.
I'm thinking particularly of Oracle and PostgreSQL, which are significantly closer to ANSI standards than Microsoft SQL Server.

You are welcome, and I think it does make sense, though I also think that it's crazy that ANSI SQL chose a meaning for this that is different from other languages.