STUFF

Example

Remove 3 characters from the beginning of a string and replace them with “HTML”.

SELECT STUFF(‘SQL Tutorial’, 1, 3, ‘HTML’);

Definition and Usage

The STUFF() function in SQL deletes a specified length of characters from a string and replaces them with another string at a specified starting position.

Tip: Consider using the REPLACE() function as well.

Syntax

STUFF(string, start, length, new_string)

Parameter Values

Parameter	Description
string	Required: Specifies the string that will be altered.
start	Required: Specifies the starting position within the string from where characters will be deleted.
length	Required: Specifies the number of characters to remove from the string.
new_string	Required: Specifies the new string that will replace the deleted characters at the specified start position in the original string.

Technical Details

Works in:

SQL Server (from 2008 onward), Azure SQL Database, Azure SQL Data Warehouse, and Parallel Data Warehouse

More Examples

Example

Remove 1 character from position 13 of a string and replace it with ” is fun!”.

SELECT STUFF(‘SQL Tutorial!’, 13, 1, ‘ is fun!’);