Remove the last character in a string in T-SQL?

Question

How do I remove the last character in a string in T-SQL?

For example:

\'TEST STRING\'

to return:

\'TES         


        

Answer 1

I love @bill-hoenig 's answer; however, I was using a subquery and I got caught up because the REVERSE function needed two sets of parentheses. Took me a while to figure that one out!

SELECT
   -- Return comma delimited list of all payment reasons for this Visit
   REVERSE(STUFF(REVERSE((
        SELECT DISTINCT
               CAST(CONVERT(varchar, r1.CodeID) + ' - ' + c.Name + ', ' AS VARCHAR(MAX))
          FROM VisitReason r1
          LEFT JOIN ReasonCode c        ON c.ID = r1.ReasonCodeID
         WHERE p.ID = r1.PaymentID
         FOR XML PATH('')
              )), 1, 2, ''))                        ReasonCode
  FROM Payments p