>Gregory,
>
>I am sorry but your message is not 100% clear (and it is probably just me). You are saying the 1st but then you refer to the second case with the word "only". Could you please clarify? Thank you.

Are you expecting the field to have leading spaces?

I suggest you to try both scenarios

select fields from ... where LEN(LTRIM(CharField)) > 0

select fields from ... where IntField < 1000

and compare the execution plans (in percentage, at least).

I would expect the second to win, but it may be not as clear, so at least some testing (even with light load for now) is required from your part.

BTW, you don't need RTRIM() for the LEN function as it automatically removes trailing spaces.