\
breaks a long string constant, character or binary, into two or more lines for readability.
Transact-SQL Syntax Conventions
<first section of string> \
<continued section of string>
<first section of string>
Is the start of a string.
<continued section of string>
Is the continuation of a string.
This command returns the first and continued sections of the string as one string, without the backslash.
The following example uses a backslash and a carriage return to split a character string into two lines.
SELECT 'abc\
def' AS [ColumnResult];
Here is the result set.
ColumnResult
------------
abcdef
The following example uses a backslash and a carriage return to split a binary string into two lines.
SELECT 0xabc\
def AS [ColumnResult];
Here is the result set.
ColumnResult
------------
0xABCDEF
Data Types (Transact-SQL)
Built-in Functions (Transact-SQL)
Operators (Transact-SQL)
(Division) (Transact-SQL)
(Division Assignment) (Transact-SQL)
Compound Operators (Transact-SQL)