Operations on strings (VARCHAR(N)) are common in T-SQL queries. Performance improvements on string functions and operators that are working with strings boosts the performance of the queries that use LIKE predicates, [string functions](/sql/t-sql/functions/string-functions-transact-sql?view=sql-server-ver16&preserve-view=true) and comparison operators in WHERE predicates, and operators like GROUP BY, ORDER BY, JOIN that are working with string types.