In February 2025, Microsoft introduced new T-SQL functions in Azure SQL Database and SQL Database in Microsoft Fabric to enhance fuzzy string matching capabilities. You can visit Exciting new T-SQL features: Regex support, Fuzzy string-matching, and bigint support in DATEADD – preview for more details.
This article will deep dive into newly introduced functions and explain the differences and use cases of these newly introduced functions supporting fuzzy search.
The Need for Fuzzy String Matching in SQL Server
Handling user input in search operations can be challenging due to misspellings, variations in spelling, and inconsistent data entry. Traditional SQL queries using