I have tables A and B that share several fields and have the same datatype/length and I'm trying to get additional information to B and for that I need to do a match on case_number.
The problem is case_number in table A has a length of 10 and anything less than 10 is preceded with zeros (i.e 84534 --> 0000084534) table B does not (84534 = 84534) So when I attempt to match on case_number I get no results. Both fields are varchar2 and this is Oracle and I'm unable to modify table A.
I tried to use LPAD and that does not seem to help. I need a function to work in select statement.
The simplest solution seems to be to left-pad the string from the second table with zeros:
...
where a.case_number = lpad(b.case_number, 10, '0')
...
Alternatively, you could leave b.case_number unchanged and left-trim '0' from a.case_number, but this will only work if you can guarantee that b.case_number never has leading zeros (and, in particular, that b.case_number can't be zero).
...
where ltrim(a.case_number, '0') = b.case_number
...
One method is to convert to a number:
to_number(x) = to_number(y)
Related
There seems to be inconsistencies with how ERROR-01722 error worked, for those who don't know the issue is due to an invalid number and to fix it you'll need to wrap the number to char.
But when filtering VARCHAR2 it is stated that Oracle will convert the data of the column being filtered based on the value given to it. (see: https://stackoverflow.com/a/10422418/5337433)
Now that this is explained for some reason, the error is inconsistent. As an example I have this query:
In this example filter1 is varchar2
select *
from table
where filter1 = 12345
and filter2 = ''
and filter3 = '';
When this statement run there were no issues, but when you run it like this:
select *
from table
where filter1 = 12345
and filter2 = '';
it errors out to ERROR-01722, im not sure why it is acting this way, and how to fix it.
When you compare a varchar column to a number, Oracle will try to convert the column's content to a number, not the other way round (because 123 could be stored as '0123' or '00123')
In general you should always use constant values that match the data type of the column you compare them with. So it should be:
where filter1 = '12345'
However if you are storing numbers in that column, you should not define it as varchar - it should be converted to a proper number column.
The reason the error doesn't show up "consistently" is that you seem to have some values that can be converted to a number and some can't. It depends on other conditions in the query if the those values are included or not.
Additionally: empty strings are converted to NULL in Oracle. So the condition filter2 = '' will never be true. You will have to use filter2 is null if you want to check for an "empty" column.
I have a column in my table with these values:
PING_TO_ME_20100828_Any87
TO_THESE_D_COLUMN_ENTRY_20200825
TO_THESE_D_20100829_COLUMN_ENTRY
201901_ARE_YOU_TRYING_TO_REACH47
ASK_TO_UOU_201008
I need to separate date values in a separate column.
My output should be:
20100828
20200825
20100829
201901
201008
Any help is very much appreciated.
You will (and already have) likely get comments about this telling you to fix your design. And while that is likely true...I won't try to pick apart why you are doing this, and I'll just give you the answer you came here for.
Your goal is to pick out either an 8 digit string of integers, or a 6 digit string of integers.
Here is one way you could do it:
SELECT x.y
, COALESCE(SUBSTRING(x.y, NULLIF(PATINDEX('%[0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9]%', x.y), 0), 8)
, SUBSTRING(x.y, NULLIF(PATINDEX('%[0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9]%', x.y), 0), 6))
FROM (
VALUES ('PING_TO_ME_20100828_Any87'),
('TO_THESE_D_COLUMN_ENTRY_20200825'),
('TO_THESE_D_20100829_COLUMN_ENTRY'),
('201901_ARE_YOU_TRYING_TO_REACH47'),
('ASK_TO_UOU_201008')
) x(y)
Explanation:
Since you are looking for both 8 and 6 digit values, you need to check for the longer of the two first. So first I search for the occurrence of a string of 8 integers using:
NULLIF(PATINDEX('%[0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9]%', x.y), 0)
This returns the first position of a string of 8 integers. The reason I wrap it in a NULLIF() is because if the value is not found, then PATINDEX will return 0.
I use NULLIF() to return NULL in that case, essentially indicating nothing was found. If you pass a NULL value to SUBSTRING() then it also returns NULL.
This is all just a nice way of "failing over" to the 6 character string check.
So there I do the same thing again:
NULLIF(PATINDEX('%[0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9]%', x.y), 0)
Except this time, I only repeat [0-9] six times. And again, I use the NULLIF() trick, so that it returns NULL if no string is found.
Throw that all into SUBSTRING() and COALESCE() and you've got a function that returns the results you're looking for.
Potential downsides
There are a couple down sides to this method.
It is not checking for a valid date, it's simply looking for a string of either 8 integers, or 6 integers. It could be 12345678 and it would still detect and return that.
If there are strings of integers longer than 8 digits, it will grab only the first 8 characters.
If there are multiple occurrences of 6 or 8 character integer strings...it will only return the first one.
There are much more robust ways you could write this, but it all depends on your data and what you need to do.
Other methods
Another way it could be done depending on which version of SQL Server you are using, is using STRING_SPLIT().
SELECT x.y, s.[value]
FROM (
VALUES ('PING_TO_ME_20100828_Any87'),('TO_THESE_D_COLUMN_ENTRY_20200825'),('TO_THESE_D_20100829_COLUMN_ENTRY'),('201901_ARE_YOU_TRYING_TO_REACH47'),('ASK_TO_UOU_201008')
) x(y)
CROSS APPLY (
SELECT [value]
FROM STRING_SPLIT(x.y, '_')
WHERE [value] LIKE '[0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9]'
OR [value] LIKE '[0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9]'
) s
This method handles a couple of the downsides mentioned earlier. For example, it will ONLY return integer strings of length 6 or 8. It will also return ALL integer strings of length 6 or 8 and not just the first one.
And there's other ways to identify the strings as well, like using ISNUMERIC(x.[value]) or TRY_CONVERT(int, s.[value]).
It all depends on how you are using this code...if it's runs fast enough, and it's a one off script, then it really doesn't matter. If it's running for millions of records at a time, then yeah you should play around with other methods.
I did not expect this to be a problem, but I'm struggling to return the first 3 numbers, including the 0's before them. In the below examples, I show a few things I've tried. I want it to return '001'. It either returns '118' or an error. It seems like every solution wants to convert them to a text, which will drop the 0's.
SELECT lpad(00118458582::text, 3, '0')
returns 118
SELECT lpad(00118458582, 3, '0')
ERROR: function lpad(integer, integer, unknown) does not exist
SELECT left(00118458582::text, 3)
returns 118
SELECT left(00118458582, 3)
ERROR: function left(integer, integer) does not exist
SELECT substring(00118458582::text, 1, 3)
returns 118
Can I get any help please? Thanks!
Your problem starts before you try to get the first 3 digits, namely that you're considering 00118458582 to be a valid INTEGER (or whatever numeric type). I mean, it's not invalid, but what happens when you run SELECT 00118458582::INTEGER? You get 118458582. Because leading zeros in those types are senseless. So you'll never have a situation as in your examples (outside of a hardcoded number with leading zeros in your query window) in your tables, because those zeros wouldn't be stored in your number-based data type fields.
So the only way to get that sort of situation is when they're string-based: SELECT '00118458582'::TEXT returns 00118458582. And at that point you can run your preferred function to get the first 3 characters, e.g. SELECT LEFT('00118458582', 3) which returns 001. But if you're planning on casting that to INTEGER or something, forget about leading zeros.
SELECT substring(00118458582::text, 1, 3)
returns 118 because it is a number 118458582 (the leading zeros are automatically dropped), that is converted to text '118458582' and it then takes the first 3 characters.
If you are trying to take the first three digits and then convert to a number you can use try:
select substring('00118458582', 1,3::numeric)
it might actually be:
select substring('00118458582', 1,3)::numeric
I don't have a way to test right now...
lpad() refers to the total length of the returned value. So I think you want:
select lpad(00118458582::text, 12, '0'::text)
If you always want exactly 3 zeros before, then just concatenate them:
select '000' || 00118458582::text
I've been asked to run a query to return a list of UK post codes from a table full of filters for email reports which only have 1 number at the end. The problem is that UK post codes are of variable length; some are structured 'AA#' or 'AA##' and some are structured 'A#' or 'A##'. I only want those that are either 'AA#' or 'A#'.
I tried running the below SQL, using length and (attempting to) use regex to filter out all results which didn't match what I wanted, but I'm very new to using ranges and it hasn't worked.
SELECT PostCode
FROM ReportFilterTable RFT
WHERE RFT.FilterType = 'Postcode'
AND LEN(RFT.Postcode) < 4
AND RFT.PostCode LIKE '%[0-9]'
I think the way I'm approaching this is flawed, but I'm clueless as to a better way. Could anyone help me out?
Thanks!
EDIT:
Since I helpfully didn't include any example data originally, I've now done so below.
This is a sample of the kind of values in the column I'm returning, with examples of what I need to return and what I don't.
B1 -- Should be returned
B10 -- Should not be returned
B2 -- Should be returned
B20 -- Should not be returned
B3 -- Should be returned
B30 -- Should not be returned
SE1 -- Should be returned
SE10 -- Should not be returned
You could filter for one or two letters (and omit the length check, since it's implicit in the LIKE):
WHERE RFT.FilterType = 'Postcode' AND
(RFT.PostCode LIKE '[A-Z][0-9]' OR RFT.PostCode LIKE '[A-Z][A-Z][0-9]')
If the issue is that you are getting values with multiple digits and you are using SQL Server (as suggested by the syntax), then you can do:
WHERE RFT.FilterType = 'Postcode' AND
LEN(RFT.Postcode) < 4 AND
(RFT.PostCode LIKE '%[0-9]' AND RFT.PostCode NOT LIKE '%[0-9][0-9]')
Or, if you know there are at least two characters, you could use:
WHERE RFT.FilterType = 'Postcode' AND
LEN(RFT.Postcode) < 4 AND
RFT.PostCode LIKE '%[^0-9][0-9]'
Non-digit followed by 1 digit ... LIKE '%[^0-9][0-9]'
I found a weird problem with MySQL select statement having "IN" in where clause:
I am trying this query:
SELECT ads.*
FROM advertisement_urls ads
WHERE ad_pool_id = 5
AND status = 1
AND ads.id = 23
AND 3 NOT IN (hide_from_publishers)
ORDER BY rank desc
In above SQL hide_from_publishers is a column of advertisement_urls table, with values as comma separated integers, e.g. 4,2 or 2,7,3 etc.
As a result, if hide_from_publishers contains same above two values, it should return only record for "4,2" but it returns both records
Now, if I change the value of hide_for_columns for second set to 3,2,7 and run the query again, it will return single record which is correct output.
Instead of hide_from_publishers if I use direct values there, i.e. (2,7,3) it does recognize and returns single record.
Any thoughts about this strange problem or am I doing something wrong?
There is a difference between the tuple (1, 2, 3) and the string "1, 2, 3". The former is three values, the latter is a single string value that just happens to look like three values to human eyes. As far as the DBMS is concerned, it's still a single value.
If you want more than one value associated with a record, you shouldn't be storing it as a comma-separated value within a single field, you should store it in another table and join it. That way the data remains structured and you can use it as part of a query.
You need to treat the comma-delimited hide_from_publishers column as a string. You can use the LOCATE function to determine if your value exists in the string.
Note that I've added leading and trailing commas to both strings so that a search for "3" doesn't accidentally match "13".
select ads.*
from advertisement_urls ads
where ad_pool_id = 5
and status = 1
and ads.id = 23
and locate(',3,', ','+hide_from_publishers+',') = 0
order by rank desc
You need to split the string of values into separate values. See this SO question...
Can Mysql Split a column?
As well as the supplied example...
http://blog.fedecarg.com/2009/02/22/mysql-split-string-function/
Here is another SO question:
MySQL query finding values in a comma separated string
And the suggested solution:
http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/string-functions.html#function_find-in-set