plus sign (+)      concatenation             'one'+'two'='onetwo'
 ascii              char->ascii value         ascii('A')=65
 char               ascii->char               char(65)='A'
 charindex          similar to instring       charindex('two','onetwothree')=4
 char_length        length of string          charlength('onetwo')=6
 lower              lower case                lower('ONE')='one'
 ltrim              trim left blanks          ltrim('   one')='one'
 replicate          repeat chars              replicate('-',8)='--------'
 reverse            flip string               reverse('salad')='dalas'
 right              right chunk of string     right('Chicago',2)='go'
 rtrim              trim right blanks         rtrim('test   ')='test'
 space              spaces                    space(5)='     '
 str                float->char               str(5.6,12,2)='        5.60'
 stuff              insert chars within str   stuff('onetwothree',4,3,'-----')='one-----three'
 substring          get piece of string       substring('sybase',1,2)='sy'
 upper              upper case                upper('one')='ONE'