How to remove leftmost group of numbers from string in Oracle SQL? - sql

Question

I have a string like T_44B56T4 that I'd like to make T_B56T4. I can't use positional logic because the string could instead be TE_2BMT that I'd like to make TE_BMT.
What is the most concise Oracle SQL logic to remove the leftmost grouping on consecutive numbers from the string?
EDIT:
regex_replace is unavailable but I have LTRIM,REPLACE,SUBSTR, etc.

Answer 1

would this fit the bill? I am assuming there are alphanumeric characters, then underscore, and then the numbers you want to remove followed by anything.
select regexp_replace(s, '^([[:alnum:]]+)_\d*(.*)$', '\1_\2')
from (
select 'T_44B56T4' s from dual union all
select 'TXM_1JK7B' from dual
)
It uses regular expressions with matched groups.
Alphanumeric characters before underscore are matched and stored in first group, then underscore followed by 0-many digits (it will match as many digits as possible) followed by anything else that is stored in second group.
If we have a match, the string will be replaced by content of the first group followed by underscore and content of the second group.
if there is no match, the string will not be changed.

Answer 2

It seems that you must use standard string functions, as regular expression functions are not available to you. (Comment under Gordon Linoff's answer; it would help if you would add the same at the bottom of your original question, marked clearly as EDIT).
Also, it seems that the input will always have at least one underscore, and any digits that must be removed will always be immediately after the first underscore.
If so, here is one way you could solve it:
select s, substr(s, 1, instr(s, '_')) ||
ltrim(substr(s, instr(s, '_') + 1), '0123456789') as result
from (
select 'T_44B56T4' s from dual union all
select 'TXM_1JK7B' from dual union all
select '34_AB3_1D' from dual
)
S RESULT
--------- ------------------
T_44B56T4 T_B56T4
TXM_1JK7B TXM_JK7B
34_AB3_1D 34_AB3_1D
I added one more test string, to show that only digits immediately following the first underscore are removed; any other digits are left unchanged.
Note that this solution would very likely be faster than regexp solutions, too (assuming that matters; sometimes it does, but often it doesn't).

Answer 3

If I understand correctly, you can use regexp_replace():
select regexp_replace('T_44B56T4', '_[0-9]+', '_')
Here is a db<>fiddle with your two examples.
Note: Your questions says the left most grouping, but the examples all have the number following an underscore, so the underscore seems to be important.
EDIT:
If you really just want the first string of digits replaced without reference to the underscore:
select regexp_replace(code, '[0-9]+', '', 1, 1)
from (select 'T_44B56T4' as code from dual union all select 'TE_2BMT' from dual ) t