TRANSLATE (Transact‑SQL)

Syntax

TRANSLATE ( string_expression , characters , translations )

string_expression – The input string to be translated. nvarchar, varchar, char, or nchar types are allowed.

characters – A string containing the characters to be replaced.

translations – A string containing the replacement characters. Each character in characters is replaced by the character at the same position in translations.

Parameters

Parameter	Type	Description
string_expression	nvarchar \| varchar \| char \| nchar	The source string to translate.
characters	nvarchar \| varchar \| char \| nchar	Characters to be replaced.
translations	nvarchar \| varchar \| char \| nchar	Replacement characters.

Return Type

Returns the same data type as string_expression with the translations applied. If string_expression is NULL, the result is NULL.

Remarks

Translation is performed character by character. If a character in characters does not have a corresponding character in translations, it is removed from the result.
Both characters and translations must be of the same length; otherwise, extra characters are ignored.
Use TRANSLATE for simple character mapping; for more complex pattern replacement, use REPLACE or REGEXP_REPLACE (SQL Server 2022+).

Examples

Basic character replacement

SELECT TRANSLATE('SQL Server 2022', 'S2022', 'R1111') AS Result;
-- Result: RQL Server 1111
    

Removing characters

SELECT TRANSLATE('Hello, World!', '!,', '') AS Cleaned;
-- Cleaned: Hello World
    

Case conversion

SELECT TRANSLATE('MixedCASE', 'abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz', 'ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ') AS Uppered;
-- Uppered: MIXEDCASE
    

SQL Server Documentation