Get rows which contain exactly one special character - sql

I have a SQL query which returns some rows having the below format:
DB_host
DB_host_instance
How can i filter to get rows which only have the format of 'DB_host' (place a condition to return values with only one occurrence of '_')
i tried using [0-9a-zA-Z_0-9a-zA-Z], but seems like its not right. Please suggest.

One option would be using REGEXP_COUNT and at most one underscore is needed then use
WHERE REGEXP_COUNT( col, '_' ) <= 1
or strictly one underscore should exist then use
WHERE REGEXP_COUNT( col, '_' ) = 1

A simple method is a regular expression:
where regexp_like(col, '^[^_]+_[^_]+$')
This matches the full string when there is a string with no underscores followed by an underscore followed by another string with no underscores.
You could also do this with LIKE, but it is more complicated:
where col like '%\_%' and col not like '%\_%\_%'
That is, has one underscore but not two. The \ is needed because _ is a wildcard for LIKE patterns.

You can suppress underscores in the string, and ensure that the length of the result is just one character less than the original:
where len(replace(col, '_', '')) = len(col) - 1
I wonder how this method would compare to a regex or two likes in terms of efficiency on a large dataset. I would not be surprised it it was more efficient.

Related

Oracle SQL REGEXP to replace a particular string with different column value

I have a string value in ColumnA separated by '_'.
ColumnA
ColumnB
1_2_AB34-E1
8
2_3_CD56-F1
9
I need to modify ColumnA by replacing the value after 2nd '_' with the value in ColumnB
ColumnA
ColumnB
1_2_8
8
2_3_9
9
I tried using REGEXP_REPLACE(ColumnA, '[^|]+', ColumnB, 1, 3). But it is not working as expected. Can someone share their inputs?
You could just take everything up to the second _ and then concatenate the other column:
select regexp_replace(a, '^([^_]+_[^_]+_).*', '\1') || b
If you want to modify the column in place, the logic works in an update:
update t
set a = regexp_replace(a, '^([^_]+_[^_]+_).*', '\1') || b;
Here is a db<>fiddle.
Assuming that every input string has at least two underscores, and that everything after the second underscore must be replaced, you can do this much more efficiently than with regular expressions - use standard string functions instead.
select substr(columnA, 1, instr(columnA, '_', 1, 2)) || columnB
from ...
(or use similar in update). instr returns the position of the second underscore in the input string in columnA, and then substr returns the substring from the first position up to and including that second underscore. Then concatenate columnB to that substring. The code follows the logic exactly, in every detail.
If the input string may sometimes have fewer than two underscores, you need to explain the requirement. The query above, in those cases only, will replace the entire string from columnA with the string from columnB - perhaps not the desired outcome. The query can be modified in those cases, to implement the required handling - while still being much more efficient than a regular expressions solution.

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

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.
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.
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).
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

Postgresql: Extracting substring after first instance of delimiter

I'm trying to extract everything after the first instance of a delimiter.
For example:
01443-30413 -> 30413
1221-935-5801 -> 935-5801
I have tried the following queries:
select regexp_replace(car_id, E'-.*', '') from schema.table_name;
select reverse(split_part(reverse(car_id), '-', 1)) from schema.table_name;
However both of them return:
01443-30413 -> 30413
1221-935-5801 -> 5801
So it's not working if delimiter appears multiple times.
I'm using Postgresql 11. I come from a MySQL background where you can do:
select SUBSTRING(car_id FROM (LOCATE('-',car_id)+1)) from table_name
Why not just do the PG equivalent of your MySQL approach and substring it?
SELECT SUBSTRING('abcdef-ghi' FROM POSITION('-' in 'abcdef-ghi') + 1)
If you don't like the "from" and "in" way of writing arguments, PG also has "normal" comma separated functions:
SELECT SUBSTR('abcdef-ghi', STRPOS('abcdef-ghi', '-') + 1)
I think that regexp_replace is appropriate, but using the correct pattern:
select regexp_replace('1221-935-5801', E'^[^-]+-', '');
935-5801
The regex pattern ^[^-]+- matches, from the start of the string, one or more non dash characters, ending with a dash. It then replaces with empty string, effectively removing this content.
Note that this approach also works if the input has no dashes at all, in which case it would just return the original input.
Use this regexp pattern :
select regexp_replace('1221-935-5801', E'^[^-]+-', '') from schema.table_name
Regexp explanation :
^ is the beginning of the string
[^-]+ means at least one character different than -
...until the - character is met
I tried it in a conventional way in general what we do (found
something similar to instr as strpos in postgrsql .) Can try the below
SELECT
SUBSTR(car_id,strpos(car_id,'-')+1,
length(car_id) ) from table ;

Extracting specific part of column values in Oracle SQL

I want to extract a specific part of column values.
The target column and its values look like
TEMP_COL
---------------
DESCOL 10MG
TEGRAL 200MG 50S
COLOSPAS 135MG 30S
The resultant column should look like
RESULT_COL
---------------
10MG
200MG
135MG
This can be done using a regular expression:
SELECT regexp_substr(TEMP_COL, '[0-9]+MG')
FROM the_table;
Note that this is case sensitive and it always returns the first match.
I would probably approach this using REGEXP_SUBSTR() rather than base functions, because the structure of the prescription text varies from record to record.
SELECT TRIM(REGEXP_SUBSTR(TEMP_COL, '(\s)(\S*)', 1, 1))
FROM yourTable
The pattern (\s)(\S*) will match a single space followed by any number of non-space characters. This should match the second term in all cases. We use TRIM() to remove a leading space which is matched and returned.
how do you know what is the part you want to extract? how do you know where it begins and where it ends? using the white-spaces?
if so, you can use substr for cutting the data and instr for finding the white-spaces.
example:
select substr(tempcol, -- string
instr(tempcol, ' ', 1), -- location of first white-space
instr(tempcol, ' ', 1, 2) - instr(tempcol, ' ', 1)) -- length until next space
from dual
another solution is using regexp_substr (but it might be harder on performance if you have a lot of rows):
SELECT REGEXP_SUBSTR (tempcol, '(\S*)(\s*)', 1, 2)
FROM dual;
edit: fixed the regular expression to include expressions that don't have space after the parsed text. sorry about that.. ;)

Cut string after first occurrence of a character

I have strings like 'keepme:cutme' or 'string-without-separator' which should become respectively 'keepme' and 'string-without-separator'. Can this be done in PostgreSQL? I tried:
select substring('first:last' from '.+:')
But this leaves the : in and won't work if there is no : in the string.
Use split_part():
SELECT split_part('first:last', ':', 1) AS first_part
Returns the whole string if the delimiter is not there. And it's simple to get the 2nd or 3rd part etc.
Substantially faster than functions using regular expression matching. And since we have a fixed delimiter we don't need the magic of regular expressions.
Related:
Split comma separated column data into additional columns
regexp_replace() may be overload for what you need, but it also gives the additional benefit of regex. For instance, if strings use multiple delimiters.
Example use:
select regexp_replace( 'first:last', E':.*', '');
SQL Select to pick everything after the last occurrence of a character
select right('first:last', charindex(':', reverse('first:last')) - 1)