>>>>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.
>>>
>>>Thank you for your suggestions. But the LTRIM() is still necessary with LEN()? otherwise, LEN() will return the size of the column; correct?
>>>
>>>As to testing, sorry no time for that. I have to trust yours and Gregory's judgement and go with that. If things don't work, at least I have some smart people I can blame <g>
>>
>>Dmitry,
>>
>>In SQL Server it's not always 100% simple answer. You can not rely on the forums' answers if you don't do at least a simple test yourself.
>>
>>Take a look (even if you don't have time right now) for this yesterday's post by Ted Krugger
>>
>>A trigger can do that!
>>
>>to see why it's important to do tests.
>>
>>BTW, this reminds me - may be I need to write a blog post also to share my recent experience (even if it will be a bit late to participate).
>>Try
>>

>>declare @t table (St char(20))
>>
>>insert into @t
>>values ('  Dmitry'),('Dmitry   '),('Dmitry'), ('Dima')
>>
>>select LEN(St) as [Len], St, Datalength(St) as [DtLen],  LEN(LTRIM(St)) as [LtrimLen] from @t
>>

>>
>> to see how LEN function works.
>
>Thank you. I copied your code (exactly) into the query window of SQL server but get an error (something near ","). I am sure it is only a typo or I copied incorrectly.

There is an extra comma here.

And yes, I wrote from the top of my head, haven't tested myself (don't have time :))

I corrected the typo in the above.