space-transact-sql.md

title	SPACE (Transact-SQL)
description	SPACE (Transact-SQL)
author	MikeRayMSFT
ms.author	mikeray
ms.date	03/15/2017
ms.service	sql
ms.subservice	t-sql
ms.topic	reference
ms.custom	ignite-2025
f1_keywords	SPACE_TSQL SPACE
helpviewer_keywords	strings [SQL Server], repeated spaces repeated spaces SPACE function
dev_langs	TSQL
monikerRange	>=aps-pdw-2016 || =azuresqldb-current || =azure-sqldw-latest || >=sql-server-2016 || >=sql-server-linux-2017 || =azuresqldb-mi-current || =fabric || =fabric-sqldb

SPACE (Transact-SQL)

[!INCLUDE sql-asdb-asdbmi-asa-pdw-fabricse-fabricdw-fabricsqldb]

Returns a string of repeated spaces.

:::image type="icon" source="../../includes/media/topic-link-icon.svg" border="false"::: Transact-SQL syntax conventions

Syntax

SPACE ( integer_expression )  

Arguments

integer_expression
Is a positive integer that indicates the number of spaces. If integer_expression is negative, a null string is returned.

For more information, see Expressions (Transact-SQL)

Return Types

varchar

Remarks

To include spaces in Unicode data, or to return more than 8000 character spaces, use REPLICATE instead of SPACE.

Examples

The following example trims the last names and concatenates a comma, two spaces, and the first names of people listed in the Person table in [!INCLUDE sssampledbobject-md].

USE AdventureWorks2022;  
GO  
SELECT RTRIM(LastName) + ',' + SPACE(2) +  LTRIM(FirstName)  
FROM Person.Person  
ORDER BY LastName, FirstName;  
GO  

Examples: [!INCLUDEssazuresynapse-md] and [!INCLUDEssPDW]

The following example trims the last names and concatenates a comma, two spaces, and the first names of people listed in the DimCustomer table in AdventureWorksPDW2012.

-- Uses AdventureWorks  
  
SELECT RTRIM(LastName) + ',' + SPACE(2) +  LTRIM(FirstName)  
FROM dbo.DimCustomer  
ORDER BY LastName, FirstName;  
GO  

See Also

REPLICATE (Transact-SQL)
String Functions (Transact-SQL)
Built-in Functions (Transact-SQL)