reverse-transact-sql.md

---

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.service: "" ms.component: "t-sql|functions" ms.reviewer: "" ms.suite: "sql" ms.technology:

• "database-engine" ms.tgt_pltfrm: "" ms.topic: "language-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 caps.latest.revision: 46 author: "edmacauley" ms.author: "edmaca" manager: "craigg" ms.workload: "Active" monikerRange: ">= aps-pdw-2016 || = azuresqldb-current || = azure-sqldw-latest || >= sql-server-2016 || = sqlallproducts-allversions"

---

REVERSE (Transact-SQL)

[!INCLUDEtsql-appliesto-ss2008-all-md]

Returns the reverse order of a string value.

Transact-SQL Syntax Conventions

Syntax

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  

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)