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Databases

Robin Burgess
Robin Burgess
4,110 Points
Posted by Robin Burgess
Robin Burgess
4,110 Points

Concatenation vs. Addition in MS SQL?

Hello,

I am currently taking my SQL baby steps in hopes that I can apply the knowledge at work. We use Microsoft SQL at work, and the Teacher's Notes in "Adding Text Columns Together" in the Reporting course mentions that + is the concatenation operator in MS SQL.

Though I haven't bumped into this yet, I am curious-- how does one differentiate this from addition? To use the example presented by one of the lessons, if I wanted to add a processing fee (say, 10.80) to the base cost (say, 110.45) and alias it to a "total" column, how can I ensure that I end up with "121.25" and not "110.4510.80"?

1 Answer

Bob Buethe
Bob Buethe
3,276 Points

Text strings are surrounded by quotes:

10.80 + 110.45 = 121.25

"10.80" + "110.45" = "10.80110.45"

10.80 + "110.45" = Error. You can't add a number to a string.

If you were using variables or field names instead of constants, it would depend on how they were defined; numeric or text.