What does SQL Select symbol || mean?

Question

What does || do in SQL?

SELECT 'a' || ',' || 'b' AS letter

Answer 1

|| represents string concatenation. Unfortunately, string concatenation is not completely portable across all sql dialects:

• ansi sql: || (infix operator)
• mysql: concat ( vararg function ). caution: || means 'logical or' (It's configurable, however; thanks to @hvd for pointing that out)
• oracle: || (infix operator), concat ( caution: function of arity 2 only ! )
• postgres: || (infix operator)
• sql server: + (infix operator), concat ( vararg function )
• sqlite: || (infix operator)

hopefully the confusion is complete ...

Answer 2

It is a concat statement. It will concatenate the two strings.

Here is a helpful post!

What is the difference between "||" operator and concat function in Oracle?

Answer 3

SELECT 'a' || ',' || 'b' AS letter will combine a letter. The result become 'a,b'

Answer 4

In Oracle, SQLite3, and MySQL, it concatenates strings. Please see the Oracle documentation. The MySQL documentation.

Also, it's part of ANSI SQL, but read this for more information.

Answer 5

It's a concatenation operator. So you would get 'a,b' from that. I think || will work on most RDBMS's. SQL Server requires the + operator (thanks to HVD for setting me straight!).

Answer 6

in oracle its a shortcut for concatenate

http://docs.oracle.com/cd/B19306_01/server.102/b14200/operators003.htm