#0281 – SQL Server – T-SQL – Backslash breaks a long string into smaller ones

Today’s post is actually a quick tip about something I learnt over the week-end. We may often have a long line of text that needs to be embedded into our T-SQL code for inserting static data. Depending upon the IDE settings on the client workstation, the long line of text would either automatically wrap-around to a new line or continue in a single line forever, affecting the readability of the entire T-SQL query.

The easiest way to split a long line of text into multiple lines for readability purposes is to use the back-slash character as shown in the script below:

USE tempdb;

GO

DECLARE @stringOperationsTest TABLE (strVale VARCHAR(100));
INSERT INTO @stringOperationsTest (strVale)

VALUES

(‘Microsoft SQL Server’);
SELECT strVale

FROM @stringOperationsTest;

GO
/**********************

       RESULTS

**********************/

/*

strVale

———————

Microsoft SQL Server

*/