STUFF()

Signature

STUFF ( character_expression , start , length , replace_with_expression )

Parameters

• character_expression — An expression of character data. *character_expression* can be a constant, variable, or column of either character or binary data.
• start — An integer value that specifies the location to start deletion and insertion. If *start* is negative or zero, a null string is returned. If *start* is longer than the first *character_expression*, a null string is returned. *start* can be of type bigint.
• length — An integer that specifies the number of characters to delete. If *length* is negative, a null string is returned. If *length* is longer than the first *character_expression*, deletion occurs up to the last character in the last *character_expression*. If *length* is zero, insertion occurs at the start location, and no characters are deleted. *length* can be of type bigint.
• replace_with_expression — An expression of character data. *replace_with_expression* can be a constant, variable, or column of either character or binary data. This expression replaces *length* characters of *character_expression* beginning at *start*. Providing `NULL` as the *replace_with_expression*, removes characters without inserting anything.

Examples

SELECT STUFF('keyboard', 4, 5, '-') AS stuffed;

stuffed
-------
key-

Run against SQL Server 16.0.4265.3 on 2026-09-13. This is the output we got, not the documentation’s.

Available on

• SQL Server 2017 and later
• Azure SQL Database
• Azure SQL Managed Instance
• Azure Synapse Analytics
• Analytics Platform System (PDW)
• Microsoft Fabric warehouse
• Fabric SQL database