Spaces in WHERE clause for SQL Server [duplicate]

Question

I want to find out the records in which a certain column contains exactly one space and nothing else. So I wrote the first of the following queries:

select COUNT(*)
from mytable
where col = ' ' -- One space

select COUNT(*)
from mytable
where col = '  ' -- Two spaces

select COUNT(*)
from mytable
where col = '  ' -- Three spaces

However, all three queries return the exact same records. Does Microsoft SQL Server not distinguish between the amount of spaces? How can I query exactly for one, two or more spaces?

Answer 1

Yes, it ignores trailing spaces in comparisons.

You can try to append a delimiting character.

SELECT count(*)
FROM mytable
WHERE col + 'X' = ' X';

Answer 2

You can combine DATALENGTH clause with your query:

   select COUNT(*)
   from mytable
   where col = ' '
   and DATALENGTH(col) = 1