I want to update only the values in Column1 that have characters of a string, then a comma, then (without a space) more characters, like so: abc,def or abc,123,def. I want a space to be added between the comma and the next character, like so: abc, def or abc, 123, def. It shouldn't add an extra space if there already is one.
Sorry, I don't have any existing SQL to show-- I'm not sure where to even start on this.
I'd first replace all instances of , (comma + space) with , (comma, NO space). That way everything is uniform. Then go the other way; replace commas with comma + space
Perhaps a little overkill, but this will support any combination of space(s) before and after a comma
Example
Declare #S varchar(max) = 'abc , 123 , def, ddd'
Select replace(replace(replace(replace(#S,',','<>'),' ','<>'),'><',''),'<>',', ')
Returns
abc, 123, def, ddd
I should add, this is a little trick from Gordon several months ago. I don't have the original link
This would do what you are wanting
UPDATE TABLE
SET Col1 = REPLACE(REPLACE(Col1,', ',','),',',', ')
WHERE Col1 LIKE '%,%'
I think you are need to first remove space and then add space to column1 near
UPDATE yt set yt.Column1 =replace(replace(yt.Column1 ,' ',''),',',', ')
from yourtable yt
where yt.Column1 like '%,%'
If one needs exactly one space after the comma and the data is not consistent there is also the option of a string_split and then string_agg:
DECLARE #test varchar(max) = 'Test, Test 12,Test34,Test56 , Test78'
select STRING_AGG(Trim(value),', ') as Test from string_split(#test,',')
Result:
Test, Test 12, Test34, Test56, Test78
If possible you should use the new "enable_ordinal" option of string_split, but i actually never had problems with the order.
Related
I have a column in a table ident_nums that contains different types of ids. I need to remove special characters(e.g. [.,/#&$-]) from that column and replace them with space; however, if the special characters are found at the beginning of the string, I need to remove it without placing a space. I tried to do it in steps; first, I removed the special characters and replaced them with space (I used
REGEXP_REPLACE) then found the records that contain spaces at the beginning of the string and tried to use the TRIM function to remove the white space, but for some reason is not working that.
Here is what I have done
Select regexp_replace(id_num, '[:(),./#*&-]', ' ') from ident_nums
This part works for me, I remove all the unwanted characters from the column, however, if the string in the column starts with a character I don't want to have space in there, I would like to remove just the character, so I tried to use the built-in function TRIM.
update ident_nums
set id_num = TRIM(id_num)
I'm getting an error ORA-01407: can't update ident_nums.id_num to NULL
Any ideas what I am doing wrong here?
It does work if I add a where clause,
update ident_nums
set id_num = TRIM(id_num) where id = 123;
but I need to update all the rows with the white space at the beginning of the string.
Any suggestions are welcome.
Or if it can be done better.
The table has millions of records.
Thank you
Regexp can be slow sometimes so if you can do it by using built-in functions - consider it.
As #Abra suggested TRIM and TRANSLATE is a good choice, but maybe you would prefer LTRIM - removes only leading spaces from string (TRIM removes both - leading and trailing character ). If you want to remove "space" you can ommit defining the trim character parameter, space is default.
select
ltrim(translate('#kdjdj:', '[:(),./#*&-]', ' '))
from dual;
select
ltrim(translate(orginal_string, 'special_characters_to_remove', ' '))
from dual;
Combination of Oracle built-in functions TRANSLATE and TRIM worked for me.
select trim(' ' from translate('#$one,$2-zero...', '#$,-.',' ')) as RESULT
from DUAL
Refer to this dbfiddle
I think trim() is the key, but if you want to keep only alpha numerics, digits, and spaces, then:
select trim(' ' from regexp_replace(col, '[^a-zA-Z0-9 ]', ' ', 1, 0))
regexp_replace() makes it possible to specify only the characters you want to keep, which could be convenient.
Thanks, everyone, It this query worked for me
update update ident_nums
set id_num = LTRIM(REGEXP_REPLACE(id_num, '[:space:]+', ' ')
where REGEXP_LIKE(id_num, '^[ ?]')
this should work for you.
SELECT id_num, length(id_num) length_old, NEW_ID_NUM, length(NEW_ID_NUM) len_NEW_ID_NUM, ltrim(NEW_ID_NUM), length(ltrim(NEW_ID_NUM)) length_after_ltrim
FROM (
SELECT id_num, regexp_replace(id_num, '[:(),./#*&-#]', ' ') NEW_ID_NUM FROM
(
SELECT '1234$%45' as id_num from dual UNION
SELECT '#SHARMA' as id_num from dual UNION
SELECT 'JACK TEST' as id_num from dual UNION
SELECT 'XYZ#$' as id_num from dual UNION
SELECT '#ABCDE()' as id_num from dual -- THe 1st character is space
)
)
I have a table where the max length of a column (varchar) is 12, someone has loaded some value with a space, so rather than 'SPACE' it's 'SPACE '
I want to remove the space using a script, I was positive RTRIM or REPLACE(myValue, ' ', '') would work but LEN(myValue) shows there is still and extra character?
As mentioned by a couple folks, it may not be a space. Grab a copy of ngrams8k and you use it to identify the issue. For example, here we have the text, " SPACE" with a preceding space and trailing CHAR(160) (HTML BR tag). CHAR(160) looks like a space in SSMS but isn't "trimable". For example consider this query:
DECLARE #string VARCHAR(100) = ' SPACE'+CHAR(160);
SELECT '"'+#string+'"'
Using ngrams8k you could do this:
DECLARE #string VARCHAR(100) = ' SPACE'+CHAR(160);
SELECT
ng.position,
ng.token,
asciival = ASCII(ng.token)
FROM dbo.ngrams8k(#string,1) AS ng;
Returns:
position token asciival
---------- ------- -----------
1 32
2 S 83
3 P 80
4 A 65
5 C 67
6 E 69
7 160
As you can see, the first character (position 1) is CHAR(32), that's a space. The last character (postion 7) is not a space.
Knowing that CHAR(160) is the issue you could fix it like so:
SET #string = REPLACE(LTRIM(#string),CHAR(160),'')
If you are using SQL Server 2017+ you can also use TRIM which does a whole lot more than just LTRIM-and-RTRIM-ing. For example, this will remove
leading and trailing tabs, spaces, carriage returns, line returns and HTML BR tags.
SET #string = SELECT TRIM(CHAR(32)+CHAR(9)+CHAR(10)+CHAR(13)+CHAR(160) FROM #string)
Odds are it is some other non-printing character, carriage return is a big one when going from between *nix and other OS. One way to tell is to use the DUMP function. So you could start with a query like:
SELECT dump(column_name)
FROM your_table
WHERE column_name LIKE 'SPACE%'
That should help you find the offending character, however, that doesn't fix your problem. Instead, I would use something like REGEXP_REPLACE:
SELECT REGEXP_REPLACE(column_name, '[^A-z]')
FROM your_table
That should take care of any non-printing characters. You may need to play with the regular expression if you expect numbers or symbols in your string. You could switch to a character class like:
SELECT REGEXP_REPLACE(column_name, '[:cntrl:]')
FROM your_table
I have a column in my SQL Server database and it has white spaces from left and right site of the record. Basically it's a nvarchar(250) column.
I have tried removing white spaces completely like this:
UPDATE MyTable
SET whitespacecolumn = LTRIM(RTRIM(whitespacecolumn))
But this didn't work out at all, the whitespace is still there. What am I doing wrong here?
Check the below;
Find any special characters like char(10), char(13) etc in the field value.
Check the status of ANSI_PADDING ON. Refer this MSDN article.
I think replace is the way as you are looking to update
UPDATE MyTable SET whitespacecolumn = Replace(whitespacecolumn, ' ', '')
you can try doing select first and then prefer to update
SELECT *, Replace(whitespacecolumn, ' ', '') from MyTable
LTRIM, RTRIM will remove spaces in front and rear of column. In 2016 you can use TRIM function as below to trim special characters as well:
SELECT TRIM( '.,! ' FROM '# test .') AS Result;
Output:
# test
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;
I have a table in a SQL Server database with an NTEXT column. This column may contain data that is enclosed with double quotes. When I query for this column, I want to remove these leading and trailing quotes.
For example:
"this is a test message"
should become
this is a test message
I know of the LTRIM and RTRIM functions but these workl only for spaces. Any suggestions on which functions I can use to achieve this.
I have just tested this code in MS SQL 2008 and validated it.
Remove left-most quote:
UPDATE MyTable
SET FieldName = SUBSTRING(FieldName, 2, LEN(FieldName))
WHERE LEFT(FieldName, 1) = '"'
Remove right-most quote: (Revised to avoid error from implicit type conversion to int)
UPDATE MyTable
SET FieldName = SUBSTRING(FieldName, 1, LEN(FieldName)-1)
WHERE RIGHT(FieldName, 1) = '"'
I thought this is a simpler script if you want to remove all quotes
UPDATE Table_Name
SET col_name = REPLACE(col_name, '"', '')
You can simply use the "Replace" function in SQL Server.
like this ::
select REPLACE('this is a test message','"','')
note: second parameter here is "double quotes" inside two single quotes and third parameter is simply a combination of two single quotes. The idea here is to replace the double quotes with a blank.
Very simple and easy to execute !
My solution is to use the difference in the the column values length compared the same column length but with the double quotes replaced with spaces and trimmed in order to calculate the start and length values as parameters in a SUBSTRING function.
The advantage of doing it this way is that you can remove any leading or trailing character even if it occurs multiple times whilst leaving any characters that are contained within the text.
Here is my answer with some test data:
SELECT
x AS before
,SUBSTRING(x
,LEN(x) - (LEN(LTRIM(REPLACE(x, '"', ' ')) + '|') - 1) + 1 --start_pos
,LEN(LTRIM(REPLACE(x, '"', ' '))) --length
) AS after
FROM
(
SELECT 'test' AS x UNION ALL
SELECT '"' AS x UNION ALL
SELECT '"test' AS x UNION ALL
SELECT 'test"' AS x UNION ALL
SELECT '"test"' AS x UNION ALL
SELECT '""test' AS x UNION ALL
SELECT 'test""' AS x UNION ALL
SELECT '""test""' AS x UNION ALL
SELECT '"te"st"' AS x UNION ALL
SELECT 'te"st' AS x
) a
Which produces the following results:
before after
-----------------
test test
"
"test test
test" test
"test" test
""test test
test"" test
""test"" test
"te"st" te"st
te"st te"st
One thing to note that when getting the length I only need to use LTRIM and not LTRIM and RTRIM combined, this is because the LEN function does not count trailing spaces.
I know this is an older question post, but my daughter came to me with the question, and referenced this page as having possible answers. Given that she's hunting an answer for this, it's a safe assumption others might still be as well.
All are great approaches, and as with everything there's about as many way to skin a cat as there are cats to skin.
If you're looking for a left trim and a right trim of a character or string, and your trailing character/string is uniform in length, here's my suggestion:
SELECT SUBSTRING(ColName,VAR, LEN(ColName)-VAR)
Or in this question...
SELECT SUBSTRING('"this is a test message"',2, LEN('"this is a test message"')-2)
With this, you simply adjust the SUBSTRING starting point (2), and LEN position (-2) to whatever value you need to remove from your string.
It's non-iterative and doesn't require explicit case testing and above all it's inline all of which make for a cleaner execution plan.
The following script removes quotation marks only from around the column value if table is called [Messages] and the column is called [Description].
-- If the content is in the form of "anything" (LIKE '"%"')
-- Then take the whole text without the first and last characters
-- (from the 2nd character and the LEN([Description]) - 2th character)
UPDATE [Messages]
SET [Description] = SUBSTRING([Description], 2, LEN([Description]) - 2)
WHERE [Description] LIKE '"%"'
You can use following query which worked for me-
For updating-
UPDATE table SET colName= REPLACE(LTRIM(RTRIM(REPLACE(colName, '"', ''))), '', '"') WHERE...
For selecting-
SELECT REPLACE(LTRIM(RTRIM(REPLACE(colName, '"', ''))), '', '"') FROM TableName
you could replace the quotes with an empty string...
SELECT AllRemoved = REPLACE(CAST(MyColumn AS varchar(max)), '"', ''),
LeadingAndTrailingRemoved = CASE
WHEN MyTest like '"%"' THEN SUBSTRING(Mytest, 2, LEN(CAST(MyTest AS nvarchar(max)))-2)
ELSE MyTest
END
FROM MyTable
Some UDFs for re-usability.
Left Trimming by character (any number)
CREATE FUNCTION [dbo].[LTRIMCHAR] (#Input NVARCHAR(max), #TrimChar CHAR(1) = ',')
RETURNS NVARCHAR(max)
AS
BEGIN
RETURN REPLACE(REPLACE(LTRIM(REPLACE(REPLACE(#Input,' ','¦'), #TrimChar, ' ')), ' ', #TrimChar),'¦',' ')
END
Right Trimming by character (any number)
CREATE FUNCTION [dbo].[RTRIMCHAR] (#Input NVARCHAR(max), #TrimChar CHAR(1) = ',')
RETURNS NVARCHAR(max)
AS
BEGIN
RETURN REPLACE(REPLACE(RTRIM(REPLACE(REPLACE(#Input,' ','¦'), #TrimChar, ' ')), ' ', #TrimChar),'¦',' ')
END
Note the dummy character '¦' (Alt+0166) cannot be present in the data (you may wish to test your input string, first, if unsure or use a different character).
To remove both quotes you could do this
SUBSTRING(fieldName, 2, lEN(fieldName) - 2)
you can either assign or project the resulting value
You can use TRIM('"' FROM '"this "is" a test"') which returns: this "is" a test
CREATE FUNCTION dbo.TRIM(#String VARCHAR(MAX), #Char varchar(5))
RETURNS VARCHAR(MAX)
BEGIN
RETURN SUBSTRING(#String,PATINDEX('%[^' + #Char + ' ]%',#String)
,(DATALENGTH(#String)+2 - (PATINDEX('%[^' + #Char + ' ]%'
,REVERSE(#String)) + PATINDEX('%[^' + #Char + ' ]%',#String)
)))
END
GO
Select dbo.TRIM('"this is a test message"','"')
Reference : http://raresql.com/2013/05/20/sql-server-trim-how-to-remove-leading-and-trailing-charactersspaces-from-string/
I use this:
UPDATE DataImport
SET PRIO =
CASE WHEN LEN(PRIO) < 2
THEN
(CASE PRIO WHEN '""' THEN '' ELSE PRIO END)
ELSE REPLACE(PRIO, '"' + SUBSTRING(PRIO, 2, LEN(PRIO) - 2) + '"',
SUBSTRING(PRIO, 2, LEN(PRIO) - 2))
END
Try this:
SELECT left(right(cast(SampleText as nVarchar),LEN(cast(sampleText as nVarchar))-1),LEN(cast(sampleText as nVarchar))-2)
FROM TableName