reverse-transact-sql.md

title	REVERSE (Transact-SQL) | Microsoft Docs
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ms.date	03/13/2017
ms.prod	sql-non-specified
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ms.technology	database-engine
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ms.topic	language-reference
f1_keywords	REVERSE_TSQL REVERSE
dev_langs	TSQL
helpviewer_keywords	expressions [SQL Server], reverse REVERSE function reverse character expressions
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REVERSE (Transact-SQL)

[!INCLUDEtsql-appliesto-ss2008-all_md]

Returns the reverse order of a string value.

Transact-SQL Syntax Conventions

Syntax

-- Syntax for SQL Server, Azure SQL Database, Azure SQL Data Warehouse, Parallel Data Warehouse  
  
REVERSE ( string_expression )  

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  

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  

See Also

CAST and CONVERT (Transact-SQL)
Data Types (Transact-SQL)
String Functions (Transact-SQL)