Is SQL Server Naming trailing space insensitive?

Question

I have a Location table in my OLTP which, while coding SSIS against it, I found a LocationCode column name to have a trailing space in it.

Create Table Location
(
    [LocationId] INT IDENTITY (1, 1)
    [LocationCode ] INT
)

Note that LocationCode column name has a trailing space.

And yet, the following code works.

SELECT LocationCode
From Location

As a matter of fact, we located several places where the trailing space is used in stored procs, and it has continued to work.

How is this possible?

Answer 1

If delimited identifiers are used when naming an object and the object name contains trailing spaces, SQL Server stores the name without the trailing spaces.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms176027%28SQL.90%29.aspx

p.s. Delimited identifiers everywhere is a code smell -- they should be used SPARINGLY, not for every identifier.

Answer 2

In addition to what @Matt Rogish said, a trailing space in a column name is not treated like any other special character. It is actually ignored when parsing queries (whereas a hyphen or a tilda would not be ignored).

I have submitted a bug to Microsoft Connect for SQL Server.