reverse-transact-sql.md

description	REVERSE (Transact-SQL)
title	REVERSE (Transact-SQL) | Microsoft Docs
ms.custom
ms.date	03/13/2017
ms.prod	sql
ms.prod_service	database-engine, sql-database, sql-data-warehouse, pdw
ms.reviewer
ms.technology	t-sql
ms.topic	reference
f1_keywords	REVERSE_TSQL REVERSE
dev_langs	TSQL
helpviewer_keywords	expressions [SQL Server], reverse REVERSE function reverse character expressions
ms.assetid	555d8877-7cc7-4955-ae2c-6215aca313b7
author	julieMSFT
ms.author	jrasnick
monikerRange	>=aps-pdw-2016||=azuresqldb-current||=azure-sqldw-latest||>=sql-server-2016||>=sql-server-linux-2017||=azuresqldb-mi-current

REVERSE (Transact-SQL)

[!INCLUDE sql-asdb-asdbmi-asa-pdw]

Returns the reverse order of a string value.

Transact-SQL Syntax Conventions

Syntax

REVERSE ( string_expression )  

[!INCLUDEsql-server-tsql-previous-offline-documentation]

Arguments

string_expression
string_expression is an expression of a string or binary data type. string_expression can be a constant, variable, or column of either character or binary data.

Return Types

varchar or nvarchar

Remarks

string_expression must be of a data type that is implicitly convertible to varchar. Otherwise, use CAST to explicitly convert string_expression.

Supplementary Characters (Surrogate Pairs)

When using SC collations, the REVERSE function will not reverse the order of two halves of a surrogate pair.

Examples

The following example returns all contact first names with the characters reversed. This example uses the [!INCLUDEssSampleDBobject] database.

SELECT FirstName, REVERSE(FirstName) AS Reverse  
FROM Person.Person  
WHERE BusinessEntityID < 5  
ORDER BY FirstName;  
GO  

[!INCLUDEssResult]

FirstName      Reverse
-------------- --------------
Ken            neK
Rob            boR
Roberto        otreboR
Terri          irreT

(4 row(s) affected)

The following example reverses the characters in a variable.

DECLARE @myvar VARCHAR(10);  
SET @myvar = 'sdrawkcaB';  
SELECT REVERSE(@myvar) AS Reversed ;  
GO  

The following example makes an implicit conversion from an int data type into varchar data type and then reverses the result.

SELECT REVERSE(1234) AS Reversed ;  
GO  

Examples: [!INCLUDEssSDWfull] and [!INCLUDEssPDW]

The following example returns names of all databases, and the names with the characters reversed.

SELECT name, REVERSE(name) FROM sys.databases;  
GO  

See Also

CONCAT (Transact-SQL)
CONCAT_WS (Transact-SQL)
FORMATMESSAGE (Transact-SQL)
QUOTENAME (Transact-SQL)
REPLACE (Transact-SQL)
STRING_AGG (Transact-SQL)
STRING_ESCAPE (Transact-SQL)
STUFF (Transact-SQL)
TRANSLATE (Transact-SQL)
CAST and CONVERT (Transact-SQL)
Data Types (Transact-SQL)
String Functions (Transact-SQL)