I need to add spaces to the end of a column I have called NPI (nvarchar(20)). NPI is always 10 digits, but the requirements for the report want the first 10 digits to be the NPI followed by 10 spaces (text file formatting issues I assume). I have tried the following:
cast([NPI] as nvarchar(20)) + ' '
cast([NPI] as nvarchar(20)) + Space(10)
However, the result set does not change. It just shows the 10 digit NPI and spaces aren't included.
It sounds like you are actually using SQL Server instead of MySQL. VARCHAR() is for variable length strings and it will trim end whitespace. Cast instead to char/nchar for the desired output. It won't look like it in SSMS, so check datalength to confirm nchar(20) = 20 bytes * 2 for unicode.
SELECT CAST([NPI] AS NCHAR(20)) AS formattedNPI,
DATALENGTH(CAST([NPI] AS NCHAR(20))) AS confirmation
FROM your_table
This seems to work. The '*' is added to show that spaces are present..
print cast([NPI] as nchar(20)) + '*'
Here are a couple of other cheesy ways to add padding...
print substring([NPI] + ' ',1,20) + '*'
print [NPI] + space(20 - len([NPI])) + '*'
Add the space inside the cast
cast([NPI] + ' ' as nchar(20))
You're right #dfundako, I was fooled by my editor.
This works but I am using MariaDb (MySql) so it's maybe not relevant now.
select concat([NPI] , ' ')
Related
In my SQL tables I have text which has hidden characters which is only visible when I copy and paste it in notepad++.
How to find those rows which has hidden characters using SQL Server queries?
I have tried comparing the lengths using datalength and len
it did not work.
DATALENGTH(name) AS BinaryLength != LEN(name)
I want the row which has hidden characters.
On the assumption that this is being caused by control characters. Some of which are invisible. But also include tabs, newlines and spaces. An example to illustrate and how to get them to appear.
--DROP TABLE #SillyTemp
DECLARE #InvisibleChar1 NCHAR(1) = NCHAR(28), #InvisibleChar2 NCHAR(1) = NCHAR(30), #NonControlChar NCHAR(1) = NCHAR(33);
DECLARE #InputString NVARCHAR(500) = N'Some |' + #InvisibleChar1 +'| random string |' + #InvisibleChar2 + '|' + '; Thank god Finally a normal character |' + #NonControlChar + '|';
SELECT #InputString AS OhNoInvisibleCharacters
DECLARE #ControlCharRange NVARCHAR(50) = N'%[' + NCHAR(1) + '-' + NCHAR(31) + ']%';
CREATE TABLE #SillyTemp
(
input nvarchar(500)
)
INSERT INTO #SillyTemp(input)
VALUES (#InputString),(N'A normal string')
SELECT #ControlCharRange;
SELECT input FROM #SillyTemp AS #SI WHERE input LIKE #ControlCharRange;
This produces 3 results. A string with invisiblechars within them like such:
Some || random string ||; Thank god Finally a normal character |!|
Note, the are actually invisible inside SQL. But stackoverflow shows them as such. The output in SQL Server is simply.
Some || random string ||; Thank god Finally a normal character |!|
But these characters still have a corresponding (N)CHAR(X) value. (N)CHAR(0) is a NULL character and is highly unlikely to be in a string, in my setup to detect them it also provides some problems in building a range. (N)CHAR(32) is the ' ' space character.
The way the [X-Y] string operator works is also based on the (N)CHAR numbers. Therefore we can make a range of [NCHAR(1)-NCHAR(31)]
The last select goes through the temporary table, one which has invisible characters. Since we're looking for any NCHARS between 1 and 31, only those with invisible characters (and often invalid characters or tabs/newlines) satisfy the where condition. Thus only they get returned. In this case only the 'faulty' string gets returned in my select statement.
I tried to categorized the comment with keyword in SQL Server but I don't know how to get a specific string.
The word I need is ice only, but with the code '%ice%' I will get 'notice', 'service'...
SELECT
comment,
(CASE WHEN comment LIKE '%ice%' THEN 'Ice' END) AS comment_category
FROM events
Any suggestion on how to solve this?
If comment consists of words separated by spaces, you can do:
' ' + comment + ' ' like '% ice %'
You can even add other delimiters, such as:
' ' + comment + ' ' like '%[- ,.()]ice[- ,.()]%'
You can also use SQL Server's kinda sorta regex:
'.' + comment + '.' like '%[^a-z0-9]ice[^a-z0-9]%'
How to Convert the SQL data type Numerci(15,2) to string(varchar data type) without adding the trailing zeros in sybase.
Example- in column abc below values are present-
0.025
0.02
NULL
0.025589
5.289
on running the query-
select STR(column,10,4) from table --- produces the results 0.025,0.0200
select CAST(column as CHAR(5)) from table -- produces the results as 0.0250 etc
I can not do it in presentation layer
Can someone please help with query.
Unfortunately Sybase ASE does not have any native support for regex's, nor any out-of-the-box functions for stripping trailing zeros.
An obvious (?) first attempt might consist of a looping construct to strip off the trailing zeros, though it'd probably be easier to reverse() the initial string, strip off leading zeros, then reverse() to get back to the original value. Unfortunately this is not exactly efficient and would need to be encapsulated in a user-defined function (which introduces an additional performance hit each time it's invoked) in order to use it in a query.
The next idea would be to convert the zeros into something that can be (relatively) easily stripped off the end of the string, and it just so happens that ASE does provide the rtrim() function for stripping trailing spaces. This idea would look something like:
convert all zeros to spaces [str_replace('string','0',' ')]
strip off trailing spaces [rtrim('string')]
convert any remaining spaces back to zeros [str_replace('string',' ','0')]
** This obviously assumes the original string does not contain any spaces.
Here's an example:
declare #mystring varchar(100)
select #mystring = '0.025000'
-- here's a breakdown of each step in the process ...
select ':'+ #mystring + ':' union all
select ':'+ str_replace(#mystring,'0',' ') + ':' union all
select ':'+ rtrim(str_replace(#mystring,'0',' ')) + ':' union all
select ':'+ str_replace(rtrim(str_replace(#mystring,'0',' ')),' ','0') + ':'
-- and the final solution sans the visual end markers (:)
select str_replace(rtrim(str_replace(#mystring,'0',' ')),' ','0')
go
----------
:0.025000:
: . 25 :
: . 25:
:0.025:
--------
0.025
If you need to use this code snippet quite often then you may want to consider wrapping it in a user-defined function, though keep in mind there will be a slight performance hit each time the function is called.
Following approaches can be used -
1) It uses the Replace function
select COLUMN,str_replace(rtrim(str_replace(
str_replace(rtrim(str_replace(cast(COLUMN as varchar(15)), '0', ' ')), ' ', '0')
, '.', ' ')), ' ', '.')
from TABLE
Output -
0.0252
0.0252
2) Using Regex-
select COLUMN ,str(COLUMN ,10,3),
reverse(substring( reverse(str(COLUMN ,10,3)), patindex('%[^0]%',reverse(str(COLUMN ,10,3))), 10))
from TABLE
Output -
0.0252
0.0252.
Was working on SQL-EX.ru exercises.
There is one question for DML that I could not do, but I cannot proceed to the next one, until this one is done.
the question itself: All the trailing spaces in the name column of the Battles table remove and add them at the beginning of the name.
My code:
Update Battles
set name=concat(' ',(LTRIM(RTRIM(name))))
The system does not let it go through, I understand that I am using ' ' for the concat, whereas I need to use the stuff that got trimmed. And I have no idea how...
Any help would be very much appreciated
Try Something Like:-
set name = lpad(trim(name), length(trim(name))+4, ' ')
Here use TRIM to remove space from both side. use LPAD to add something on left side with n (4) chars
I'm not familiar with SQL-EX.ru, but if it's Oracle compatible and you can use regular expressions (or you are at that point in the training) here's a way. Maybe it'll give you an idea at least. The first part is just setup and uses a WITH clause to create a table (like a temp table in memory, actually called a Common Table Expression or CTE) called battles containing a name column with 2 rows. Each name column datum has a different number of spaces at the end. Next select from that column using a regular expression that uses 2 "remembered" groups surrounded by parentheses, the first containing the string up to until but not including the first space, the second containing 0 or more space characters anchored to the end of the line. Replace that with the 2nd group (the spaces) first, followed by the first group (the first part of the string). This is surrounded by square brackets just to prove in the output the same spaces were moved to the front of the string.
SQL> with battles(name) as (
select 'test2 ' from dual union
select 'test1 ' from dual
)
select '[' || regexp_replace(name, '(.*?)([ ]*)$', '\2\1') || ']' fixed
from battles;
FIXED
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
[ test1]
[ test2]
SQL>
I hope this solution can be applied to your problem or at least give you some ideas.
Try this:
set name = case when len(name) > len(rtrim(name))
then replicate(' ', len(name) - len(rtrim(name))) + rtrim(name)
else name
end
update battles
set name = case when (len(name+'a')-1) > len(rtrim(name))
then
replicate(' ',
(len(name+'a')-1) - len(rtrim(name))) + rtrim(name)
else name
end
Len() doesn't count trailing spaces. So using (len(name+'a')-1).
Simplest answer:
UPDATE Battles
SET name = SPACE(DATALENGTH(name)-DATALENGTH(RTRIM(name))) + RTRIM(name)
But only works because name is VARCHAR.
More generic is to do:
UPDATE Battles
SET name = SPACE(len(name+'x')-1-len(RTRIM(name))) + RTRIM(name)
simple example below ... enjoy :)
update battles set name =
Space( DATALENGTH(name) - DATALENGTH(rtrim(name))) + rtrim(name)
where date in ( select date from battles)
I have a relational database with several fixed length character fields. I need to permanently replace all the embedded spaces with another character like - so JOHN DOE would become JOHN-DOE and ITSY BISTSY SPIDER would become ITSY-BISTSY-SPIDER. I can search before hand to make sure there are no strings that would conflict. I just need to be able to print the requested files with no embedded spaces. I would do the replacement in the C code but I want to make sure that there is never a future case where there is a JANE DOE and JANE-DOE in the DB.
By the way I have already made sure that there are no strings with more than one consecutive embedded space or leading spaces only trailing spaces to fill the fixed length fields.
Edit: thanks for all the help!
It looks like when I cut & pasted my question from Word to StackOverflow the trailing spaces got lost so the meaning my question was lost a bit.
I need to replace only the embedded spaces not the trailing spaces!
Note: I am using middle dot to stand in for spaces that don't show well.
Using:
SELECT REPLACE(operator_name, ' ', '-') FROM operator_info ;
the string JOHN·DOE············ became JOHN-DOE------------.
I need JOHN-DOE············.
I am thinking I need to use aliasing and the TRIM command but not sure how.
With whatever REPLACE function is built into your particular database.
MySQL:
http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/string-functions.html#function_replace
Oracle:
http://psoug.org/reference/translate_replace.html
SQLServer:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms186862.aspx
Edits below based on your comment.
I've done this in SQLServer syntax so please modify the example as needed. The first example really breaks down what's going on and the second one bunches it all into a single ugly query :D
#output in this case contains your final value.
DECLARE #input VARCHAR (100) = ' some test ';
DECLARE #trimmed VARCHAR (100);
DECLARE #replaced VARCHAR (100);
DECLARE #output VARCHAR (100);
-- Get just the inner text without the preceding / trailing spaces.
SET #trimmed = LTRIM (RTRIM (#input));
-- Replace the spaces *inside* the trimmed text with a dash.
SET #replaced = REPLACE (#trimmed, ' ', '-');
-- Take the original text and replace the trimmed version (with the inner spaces) with the dash version.
SET #output = REPLACE (#input, #trimmed, #replaced);
-- Show each step of the process!
SELECT #input AS INPUT,
#trimmed AS TRIMMED,
#replaced AS REPLACED,
#output AS OUTPUT;
And as a SELECT statement.
DECLARE #inputTable TABLE (Value VARCHAR (100) NOT NULL);
INSERT INTO #inputTable (Value)
VALUES (' some test '),
(' another test ');
SELECT REPLACE (Value,
LTRIM (RTRIM (Value)),
REPLACE (LTRIM (RTRIM (Value)), ' ', '-'))
FROM #inputTable;
If you are using MSSQL:
SELECT REPLACE(field_name,' ','-');
Edit: After the requirement about skipping the trailing spaces.
You can try this one-liner:
SELECT REPLACE(RTRIM(#name), ' ', '-') + SUBSTRING(#name, LEN(RTRIM(#name)) + 1, LEN(#NAME))
However I would recommend that you put it into a user defined function instead.
assuming SQL Server:
update TABLE set column = replace (column, ' ','-')
SELECT REPLACE(field_name,' ','-');
Edit: After the requirement about skipping the trailing spaces. You can try this one-liner:
SELECT REPLACE(RTRIM(#name), ' ', '-') + SUBSTRING(#name, LEN(RTRIM(#name)) + 1;