Transact-SQL Reference

CHARINDEX

Returns the starting position of the specified expression in a character string.

Syntax

CHARINDEX ( expression1 , expression2 [ , start_location ] )

Arguments

expression1

Is an expression containing the sequence of characters to be found. expression1 is an expression of the short character data type category.

expression2

Is an expression, usually a column searched for the specified sequence. expression2 is of the character string data type category.

start_location

Is the character position to start searching for expression1 in expression2. If start_location is not given, is a negative number, or is zero, the search starts at the beginning of expression2.

Return Types

int

Remarks

If either expression1 or expression2 is of a Unicode data type (nvarchar or nchar) and the other is not, the other is converted to a Unicode data type.

If either expression1 or expression2 is NULL, CHARINDEX returns NULL when the database compatibility level is 70 or later. If the database compatibility level is 65 or earlier, CHARINDEX returns NULL only when both expression1 and expression2 are NULL.

If expression1 is not found within expression2, CHARINDEX returns 0.

Examples

The first code example returns the position at which the sequence "wonderful" begins in the notes column of the titles table. The second example uses the optional start_location parameter to begin looking for wonderful in the fifth character of the notes column. The third example shows the result set when expression1 is not found within expression2.

USE pubs
GO
SELECT CHARINDEX('wonderful', notes)
FROM titles
WHERE title_id = 'TC3218'
GO

-- Use the optional start_location parameter to start searching 
-- for wonderful starting with the fifth character in the notes
-- column.
USE pubs
GO
SELECT CHARINDEX('wonderful', notes, 5)
FROM titles
WHERE title_id = 'TC3218'
GO

Here is the result set for the first and second queries:

----------- 
46          

(1 row(s) affected)

USE pubs
GO
SELECT CHARINDEX('wondrous', notes)
FROM titles
WHERE title_id='TC3218'
GO

Here is the result set.