External Article

Declarative SQL: Using UNIQUE Constraints

In SQL, you can express the logic of what you want to accomplish without spelling out the details of how the database should do it. Nowhere is this more powerful than in constraints. In this introduction to Declarative SQL, Joe Celko demonstrates how you can write portable code that performs well and executes some complex logic, merely by creating unique constraints.

Technical Article

Exploration of SQL Server 2016 Always Encrypted – Part 1

With the introduction of SQL Server 2016 you now have a new way to encrypt columns called Always Encrypted. With Always Encrypted, data is encrypted at the application layer via ADO.NET. This means you can encrypt your confidential data with your .NET application prior to the data being sent across the network to SQL Server. In this article, Greg Larson explains his experience with exploring setting up a table that stores always encrypted data.

Blogs

Goodbye, Microsoft

By

A few years ago I took a new job at Microsoft, working as a...

The SUM of Nothing: #SQLNewBlogger

By

I caught this interesting item over on Pinal Dave’s blog: Eleven Interview Questions that...

How to Move the SSMS Status Bar to the Top and Color-Code SQL Server Connections

By

I use color-coded connections in SSMS to distinguish Production, Pre-Production, UAT, and Development. But...

Read the latest Blogs

Forums

Today's AI

By Steve Jones - SSC Editor

Comments posted to this topic are about the item Today's AI

Split Large Queries in Athena with a Simple Modulo Trick

By Rahul Gupta

Comments posted to this topic are about the item Split Large Queries in Athena...

Finding Trailing Spaces

By Steve Jones - SSC Editor

Comments posted to this topic are about the item Finding Trailing Spaces

Visit the forum

Question of the Day

Finding Trailing Spaces

I have some data in a SQL Server 2025 database. It looks like this for the dbo.Customer table:

CustomerID CustomerName PreferredName
1          Steve        Steve               
2          Andy         Andy               
3          Brian        Brian               
4          Allan        Allan               
5          Devin        Devin               
6          Steve        Steve               
7          Sally        Sally
I want to detect which names have a single trailing space. The CustomerName is a varchar() and the PreferredName is a CHAR(). Does this query detect the problem rows?
SELECT 
       CustomerID,
       CustomerName,
       PreferredName
FROM Customer
WHERE CustomerName <> RTRIM(CustomerName)
OR PreferredName <> RTRIM(PreferredName);

See possible answers