I have a SQL Query to pull a customer name from database, create a customer folder with that name. In the query I am killing slashes and periods, and i am also changing any result containing MCDONALD to SIMPLY "MCDONALDS". So MCDONALDS #123 comes out as simply MCDONALDS. Here is my query.
SELECT
CASE WHEN CHARINDEX('MCDONALD', cust_name) = 0
THEN REPLACE(REPLACE([cust_name],'.',''),'--','-')
ELSE 'MCDONALDS'
END cust_name
FROM job,dbo.cust cust_name
WHERE job.cust_id_bill_to = cust_name.cust_code AND
job.job_id = '44321' AND
job.sub_job_id = '2'
So, results now are:
MCDONALDS,
BRISTOL-MYERS,
TRUMP-CASINO
Desired results is upper and lower case in every word.. like this:
Mcdonalds,
Bristol-Myers,
Trump-Casino
I know its easy but for me its how to have it work WITH the rest of my query, what I am trying just not working so far.
Check Nimit Dudani Answer Here
DELIMITER $$
DROP FUNCTION IF EXISTS `test`.`initcap`$$
CREATE FUNCTION `initcap`(x char(30)) RETURNS char(30) CHARSET utf8
BEGIN
SET #str='';
SET #l_str='';
WHILE x REGEXP ' ' DO
SELECT SUBSTRING_INDEX(x, ' ', 1) INTO #l_str;
SELECT SUBSTRING(x, LOCATE(' ', x)+1) INTO x;
SELECT CONCAT(#str, ' ', CONCAT(UPPER(SUBSTRING(#l_str,1,1)),LOWER(SUBSTRING(#l_str,2)))) INTO #str;
END WHILE;
RETURN LTRIM(CONCAT(#str, ' ', CONCAT(UPPER(SUBSTRING(x,1,1)),LOWER(SUBSTRING(x,2)))));
END$$
DELIMITER ;
Usage:
select initcap('This is test string');
For Sql Server you can use this
INITCAP User defined Function code
IF OBJECT_ID('dbo.InitCap') IS NOT NULL
DROP FUNCTION dbo.InitCap;
GO
CREATE FUNCTION dbo.InitCap (#inStr VARCHAR(8000))
RETURNS VARCHAR(8000)
AS
BEGIN
DECLARE #outStr VARCHAR(8000) = LOWER(#inStr),
#char CHAR(1),
#alphanum BIT = 0,
#len INT = LEN(#inStr),
#pos INT = 1;
-- Iterate through all characters in the input string
WHILE #pos <= #len BEGIN
-- Get the next character
SET #char = SUBSTRING(#inStr, #pos, 1);
-- If the position is first, or the previous characater is not alphanumeric
-- convert the current character to upper case
IF #pos = 1 OR #alphanum = 0
SET #outStr = STUFF(#outStr, #pos, 1, UPPER(#char));
SET #pos = #pos + 1;
-- Define if the current character is non-alphanumeric
IF ASCII(#char) <= 47 OR (ASCII(#char) BETWEEN 58 AND 64) OR
(ASCII(#char) BETWEEN 91 AND 96) OR (ASCII(#char) BETWEEN 123 AND 126)
SET #alphanum = 0;
ELSE
SET #alphanum = 1;
END
RETURN #outStr;
END
GO
Testing :
SELECT dbo.InitCap('new york');
Result: New York
For your query
SELECT
dbo.InitCap(CASE WHEN CHARINDEX('MCDONALD', cust_name) = 0
THEN REPLACE(REPLACE([cust_name],'.',''),'--','-')
THEN 'MCDONALDS'
END) cust_name
FROM job,dbo.cust cust_name
WHERE job.cust_id_bill_to = cust_name.cust_code AND
job.job_id = '44321' AND
job.sub_job_id = '2'
I have data like this:
string 1: 003Preliminary Examination Plan
string 2: Coordination005
string 3: Balance1000sheet
The output I expect is
string 1: 003
string 2: 005
string 3: 1000
And I want to implement it in SQL.
First create this UDF
CREATE FUNCTION dbo.udf_GetNumeric
(
#strAlphaNumeric VARCHAR(256)
)
RETURNS VARCHAR(256)
AS
BEGIN
DECLARE #intAlpha INT
SET #intAlpha = PATINDEX('%[^0-9]%', #strAlphaNumeric)
BEGIN
WHILE #intAlpha > 0
BEGIN
SET #strAlphaNumeric = STUFF(#strAlphaNumeric, #intAlpha, 1, '' )
SET #intAlpha = PATINDEX('%[^0-9]%', #strAlphaNumeric )
END
END
RETURN ISNULL(#strAlphaNumeric,0)
END
GO
Now use the function as
SELECT dbo.udf_GetNumeric(column_name)
from table_name
SQL FIDDLE
I hope this solved your problem.
Reference
Try this one -
Query:
DECLARE #temp TABLE
(
string NVARCHAR(50)
)
INSERT INTO #temp (string)
VALUES
('003Preliminary Examination Plan'),
('Coordination005'),
('Balance1000sheet')
SELECT LEFT(subsrt, PATINDEX('%[^0-9]%', subsrt + 't') - 1)
FROM (
SELECT subsrt = SUBSTRING(string, pos, LEN(string))
FROM (
SELECT string, pos = PATINDEX('%[0-9]%', string)
FROM #temp
) d
) t
Output:
----------
003
005
1000
Query:
DECLARE #temp TABLE
(
string NVARCHAR(50)
)
INSERT INTO #temp (string)
VALUES
('003Preliminary Examination Plan'),
('Coordination005'),
('Balance1000sheet')
SELECT SUBSTRING(string, PATINDEX('%[0-9]%', string), PATINDEX('%[0-9][^0-9]%', string + 't') - PATINDEX('%[0-9]%',
string) + 1) AS Number
FROM #temp
Please try:
declare #var nvarchar(max)='Balance1000sheet'
SELECT LEFT(Val,PATINDEX('%[^0-9]%', Val+'a')-1) from(
SELECT SUBSTRING(#var, PATINDEX('%[0-9]%', #var), LEN(#var)) Val
)x
Getting only numbers from a string can be done in a one-liner.
Try this :
SUBSTRING('your-string-here', PATINDEX('%[0-9]%', 'your-string-here'), LEN('your-string-here'))
NB: Only works for the first int in the string, ex: abc123vfg34 returns 123.
I found this approach works about 3x faster than the top voted answer. Create the following function, dbo.GetNumbers:
CREATE FUNCTION dbo.GetNumbers(#String VARCHAR(8000))
RETURNS VARCHAR(8000)
AS
BEGIN;
WITH
Numbers
AS (
--Step 1.
--Get a column of numbers to represent
--every character position in the #String.
SELECT 1 AS Number
UNION ALL
SELECT Number + 1
FROM Numbers
WHERE Number < LEN(#String)
)
,Characters
AS (
SELECT Character
FROM Numbers
CROSS APPLY (
--Step 2.
--Use the column of numbers generated above
--to tell substring which character to extract.
SELECT SUBSTRING(#String, Number, 1) AS Character
) AS c
)
--Step 3.
--Pattern match to return only numbers from the CTE
--and use STRING_AGG to rebuild it into a single string.
SELECT #String = STRING_AGG(Character,'')
FROM Characters
WHERE Character LIKE '[0-9]'
--allows going past the default maximum of 100 loops in the CTE
OPTION (MAXRECURSION 8000)
RETURN #String
END
GO
Testing
Testing for purpose:
SELECT dbo.GetNumbers(InputString) AS Numbers
FROM ( VALUES
('003Preliminary Examination Plan') --output: 003
,('Coordination005') --output: 005
,('Balance1000sheet') --output: 1000
,('(111) 222-3333') --output: 1112223333
,('1.38hello#f00.b4r#\-6') --output: 1380046
) testData(InputString)
Testing for performance:
Start off setting up the test data...
--Add table to hold test data
CREATE TABLE dbo.NumTest (String VARCHAR(8000))
--Make an 8000 character string with mix of numbers and letters
DECLARE #Num VARCHAR(8000) = REPLICATE('12tf56se',800)
--Add this to the test table 500 times
DECLARE #n INT = 0
WHILE #n < 500
BEGIN
INSERT INTO dbo.NumTest VALUES (#Num)
SET #n = #n +1
END
Now testing the dbo.GetNumbers function:
SELECT dbo.GetNumbers(NumTest.String) AS Numbers
FROM dbo.NumTest -- Time to complete: 1 min 7s
Then testing the UDF from the top voted answer on the same data.
SELECT dbo.udf_GetNumeric(NumTest.String)
FROM dbo.NumTest -- Time to complete: 3 mins 12s
Inspiration for dbo.GetNumbers
Decimals
If you need it to handle decimals, you can use either of the following approaches, I found no noticeable performance differences between them.
change '[0-9]' to '[0-9.]'
change Character LIKE '[0-9]' to ISNUMERIC(Character) = 1 (SQL treats a single decimal point as "numeric")
Bonus
You can easily adapt this to differing requirements by swapping out WHERE Character LIKE '[0-9]' with the following options:
WHERE Letter LIKE '[a-zA-Z]' --Get only letters
WHERE Letter LIKE '[0-9a-zA-Z]' --Remove non-alphanumeric
WHERE Letter LIKE '[^0-9a-zA-Z]' --Get only non-alphanumeric
With the previous queries I get these results:
'AAAA1234BBBB3333' >>>> Output: 1234
'-çã+0!\aº1234' >>>> Output: 0
The code below returns All numeric chars:
1st output: 12343333
2nd output: 01234
declare #StringAlphaNum varchar(255)
declare #Character varchar
declare #SizeStringAlfaNumerica int
declare #CountCharacter int
set #StringAlphaNum = 'AAAA1234BBBB3333'
set #SizeStringAlfaNumerica = len(#StringAlphaNum)
set #CountCharacter = 1
while isnumeric(#StringAlphaNum) = 0
begin
while #CountCharacter < #SizeStringAlfaNumerica
begin
if substring(#StringAlphaNum,#CountCharacter,1) not like '[0-9]%'
begin
set #Character = substring(#StringAlphaNum,#CountCharacter,1)
set #StringAlphaNum = replace(#StringAlphaNum, #Character, '')
end
set #CountCharacter = #CountCharacter + 1
end
set #CountCharacter = 0
end
select #StringAlphaNum
declare #puvodni nvarchar(20)
set #puvodni = N'abc1d8e8ttr987avc'
WHILE PATINDEX('%[^0-9]%', #puvodni) > 0 SET #puvodni = REPLACE(#puvodni, SUBSTRING(#puvodni, PATINDEX('%[^0-9]%', #puvodni), 1), '' )
SELECT #puvodni
A solution for SQL Server 2017 and later, using TRANSLATE:
DECLARE #T table (string varchar(50) NOT NULL);
INSERT #T
(string)
VALUES
('003Preliminary Examination Plan'),
('Coordination005'),
('Balance1000sheet');
SELECT
result =
REPLACE(
TRANSLATE(
T.string COLLATE Latin1_General_CI_AI,
'abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz',
SPACE(26)),
SPACE(1),
SPACE(0))
FROM #T AS T;
Output:
result
003
005
1000
The code works by:
Replacing characters a-z (ignoring case & accents) with a space
Replacing spaces with an empty string.
The string supplied to TRANSLATE can be expanded to include additional characters.
I did not have rights to create functions but had text like
["blahblah012345679"]
And needed to extract the numbers out of the middle
Note this assumes the numbers are grouped together and not at the start and end of the string.
select substring(column_name,patindex('%[0-9]%', column_name),patindex('%[0-9][^0-9]%', column_name)-patindex('%[0-9]%', column_name)+1)
from table name
Although this is an old thread its the first in google search, I came up with a different answer than what came before. This will allow you to pass your criteria for what to keep within a string, whatever that criteria might be. You can put it in a function to call over and over again if you want.
declare #String VARCHAR(MAX) = '-123. a 456-78(90)'
declare #MatchExpression VARCHAR(255) = '%[0-9]%'
declare #return varchar(max)
WHILE PatIndex(#MatchExpression, #String) > 0
begin
set #return = CONCAT(#return, SUBSTRING(#string,patindex(#matchexpression, #string),1))
SET #String = Stuff(#String, PatIndex(#MatchExpression, #String), 1, '')
end
select (#return)
This UDF will work for all types of strings:
CREATE FUNCTION udf_getNumbersFromString (#string varchar(max))
RETURNS varchar(max)
AS
BEGIN
WHILE #String like '%[^0-9]%'
SET #String = REPLACE(#String, SUBSTRING(#String, PATINDEX('%[^0-9]%', #String), 1), '')
RETURN #String
END
Just a little modification to #Epsicron 's answer
SELECT SUBSTRING(string, PATINDEX('%[0-9]%', string), PATINDEX('%[0-9][^0-9]%', string + 't') - PATINDEX('%[0-9]%',
string) + 1) AS Number
FROM (values ('003Preliminary Examination Plan'),
('Coordination005'),
('Balance1000sheet')) as a(string)
no need for a temporary variable
Firstly find out the number's starting length then reverse the string to find out the first position again(which will give you end position of number from the end). Now if you deduct 1 from both number and deduct it from string whole length you'll get only number length. Now get the number using SUBSTRING
declare #fieldName nvarchar(100)='AAAA1221.121BBBB'
declare #lenSt int=(select PATINDEX('%[0-9]%', #fieldName)-1)
declare #lenEnd int=(select PATINDEX('%[0-9]%', REVERSE(#fieldName))-1)
select SUBSTRING(#fieldName, PATINDEX('%[0-9]%', #fieldName), (LEN(#fieldName) - #lenSt -#lenEnd))
T-SQL function to read all the integers from text and return the one at the indicated index, starting from left or right, also using a starting search term (optional):
create or alter function dbo.udf_number_from_text(
#text nvarchar(max),
#search_term nvarchar(1000) = N'',
#number_position tinyint = 1,
#rtl bit = 0
) returns int
as
begin
declare #result int = 0;
declare #search_term_index int = 0;
if #text is null or len(#text) = 0 goto exit_label;
set #text = trim(#text);
if len(#text) = len(#search_term) goto exit_label;
if len(#search_term) > 0
begin
set #search_term_index = charindex(#search_term, #text);
if #search_term_index = 0 goto exit_label;
end;
if #search_term_index > 0
if #rtl = 0
set #text = trim(right(#text, len(#text) - #search_term_index - len(#search_term) + 1));
else
set #text = trim(left(#text, #search_term_index - 1));
if len(#text) = 0 goto exit_label;
declare #patt_number nvarchar(10) = '%[0-9]%';
declare #patt_not_number nvarchar(10) = '%[^0-9]%';
declare #number_start int = 1;
declare #number_end int;
declare #found_numbers table (id int identity(1,1), val int);
while #number_start > 0
begin
set #number_start = patindex(#patt_number, #text);
if #number_start > 0
begin
if #number_start = len(#text)
begin
insert into #found_numbers(val)
select cast(substring(#text, #number_start, 1) as int);
break;
end;
else
begin
set #text = right(#text, len(#text) - #number_start + 1);
set #number_end = patindex(#patt_not_number, #text);
if #number_end = 0
begin
insert into #found_numbers(val)
select cast(#text as int);
break;
end;
else
begin
insert into #found_numbers(val)
select cast(left(#text, #number_end - 1) as int);
if #number_end = len(#text)
break;
else
begin
set #text = trim(right(#text, len(#text) - #number_end));
if len(#text) = 0 break;
end;
end;
end;
end;
end;
if #rtl = 0
select #result = coalesce(a.val, 0)
from (select row_number() over (order by m.id asc) as c_row, m.val
from #found_numbers as m) as a
where a.c_row = #number_position;
else
select #result = coalesce(a.val, 0)
from (select row_number() over (order by m.id desc) as c_row, m.val
from #found_numbers as m) as a
where a.c_row = #number_position;
exit_label:
return #result;
end;
Example:
select dbo.udf_number_from text(N'Text text 10 text, 25 term', N'term',2,1);
returns 10;
This is one of the simplest and easiest one. This will work on the entire String for multiple occurences as well.
CREATE FUNCTION dbo.fn_GetNumbers(#strInput NVARCHAR(500))
RETURNS NVARCHAR(500)
AS
BEGIN
DECLARE #strOut NVARCHAR(500) = '', #intCounter INT = 1
WHILE #intCounter <= LEN(#strInput)
BEGIN
SELECT #strOut = #strOut + CASE WHEN SUBSTRING(#strInput, #intCounter, 1) LIKE '[0-9]' THEN SUBSTRING(#strInput, #intCounter, 1) ELSE '' END
SET #intCounter = #intCounter + 1
END
RETURN #strOut
END
Following a solution using a single common table expression (CTE).
DECLARE #s AS TABLE (id int PRIMARY KEY, value nvarchar(max));
INSERT INTO #s
VALUES
(1, N'003Preliminary Examination Plan'),
(2, N'Coordination005'),
(3, N'Balance1000sheet');
SELECT * FROM #s ORDER BY id;
WITH t AS (
SELECT
id,
1 AS i,
SUBSTRING(value, 1, 1) AS c
FROM
#s
WHERE
LEN(value) > 0
UNION ALL
SELECT
t.id,
t.i + 1 AS i,
SUBSTRING(s.value, t.i + 1, 1) AS c
FROM
t
JOIN #s AS s ON t.id = s.id
WHERE
t.i < LEN(s.value)
)
SELECT
id,
STRING_AGG(c, N'') WITHIN GROUP (ORDER BY i ASC) AS value
FROM
t
WHERE
c LIKE '[0-9]'
GROUP BY
id
ORDER BY
id;
DECLARE #index NVARCHAR(20);
SET #index = 'abd565klaf12';
WHILE PATINDEX('%[0-9]%', #index) != 0
BEGIN
SET #index = REPLACE(#index, SUBSTRING(#index, PATINDEX('%[0-9]%', #index), 1), '');
END
SELECT #index;
One can replace [0-9] with [a-z] if numbers only are wanted with desired castings using the CAST function.
If we use the User Define Function, the query speed will be greatly reduced. This code extracts the number from the string....
SELECT
Reverse(substring(Reverse(rtrim(ltrim( substring([FieldName] , patindex('%[0-9]%', [FieldName] ) , len([FieldName]) )))) , patindex('%[0-9]%', Reverse(rtrim(ltrim( substring([FieldName] , patindex('%[0-9]%', [FieldName] ) , len([FieldName]) )))) ), len(Reverse(rtrim(ltrim( substring([FieldName] , patindex('%[0-9]%', [FieldName] ) , len([FieldName]) ))))) )) NumberValue
FROM dbo.TableName
CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION count_letters_and_numbers(input_string TEXT)
RETURNS TABLE (letters INT, numbers INT) AS $$
BEGIN
RETURN QUERY SELECT
sum(CASE WHEN input_string ~ '[A-Za-z]' THEN 1 ELSE 0 END) as letters,
sum(CASE WHEN input_string ~ '[0-9]' THEN 1 ELSE 0 END) as numbers
FROM unnest(string_to_array(input_string, '')) as input_string;
END;
$$ LANGUAGE plpgsql;
For the hell of it...
This solution is different to all earlier solutions, viz:
There is no need to create a function
There is no need to use pattern matching
There is no need for a temporary table
This solution uses a recursive common table expression (CTE)
But first - note the question does not specify where such strings are stored. In my solution below, I create a CTE as a quick and dirty way to put these strings into some kind of "source table".
Note also - this solution uses a recursive common table expression (CTE) - so don't get confused by the usage of two CTEs here. The first is simply to make the data avaliable to the solution - but it is only the second CTE that is required in order to solve this problem. You can adapt the code to make this second CTE query your existing table, view, etc.
Lastly - my coding is verbose, trying to use column and CTE names that explain what is going on and you might be able to simplify this solution a little. I've added in a few pseudo phone numbers with some (expected and atypical, as the case may be) formatting for the fun of it.
with SOURCE_TABLE as (
select '003Preliminary Examination Plan' as numberString
union all select 'Coordination005' as numberString
union all select 'Balance1000sheet' as numberString
union all select '1300 456 678' as numberString
union all select '(012) 995 8322 ' as numberString
union all select '073263 6122,' as numberString
),
FIRST_CHAR_PROCESSED as (
select
len(numberString) as currentStringLength,
isNull(cast(try_cast(replace(left(numberString, 1),' ','z') as tinyint) as nvarchar),'') as firstCharAsNumeric,
cast(isNull(cast(try_cast(nullIf(left(numberString, 1),'') as tinyint) as nvarchar),'') as nvarchar(4000)) as newString,
cast(substring(numberString,2,len(numberString)) as nvarchar) as remainingString
from SOURCE_TABLE
union all
select
len(remainingString) as currentStringLength,
cast(try_cast(replace(left(remainingString, 1),' ','z') as tinyint) as nvarchar) as firstCharAsNumeric,
cast(isNull(newString,'') as nvarchar(3999)) + isNull(cast(try_cast(nullIf(left(remainingString, 1),'') as tinyint) as nvarchar(1)),'') as newString,
substring(remainingString,2,len(remainingString)) as remainingString
from FIRST_CHAR_PROCESSED fcp2
where fcp2.currentStringLength > 1
)
select
newString
,* -- comment this out when required
from FIRST_CHAR_PROCESSED
where currentStringLength = 1
So what's going on here?
Basically in our CTE we are selecting the first character and using try_cast (see docs) to cast it to a tinyint (which is a large enough data type for a single-digit numeral). Note that the type-casting rules in SQL Server say that an empty string (or a space, for that matter) will resolve to zero, so the nullif is added to force spaces and empty strings to resolve to null (see discussion) (otherwise our result would include a zero character any time a space is encountered in the source data).
The CTE also returns everything after the first character - and that becomes the input to our recursive call on the CTE; in other words: now let's process the next character.
Lastly, the field newString in the CTE is generated (in the second SELECT) via concatenation. With recursive CTEs the data type must match between the two SELECT statements for any given column - including the column size. Because we know we are adding (at most) a single character, we are casting that character to nvarchar(1) and we are casting the newString (so far) as nvarchar(3999). Concatenated, the result will be nvarchar(4000) - which matches the type casting we carry out in the first SELECT.
If you run this query and exclude the WHERE clause, you'll get a sense of what's going on - but the rows may be in a strange order. (You won't necessarily see all rows relating to a single input value grouped together - but you should still be able to follow).
Hope it's an interesting option that may help a few people wanting a strictly expression-based solution.
In Oracle
You can get what you want using this:
SUBSTR('ABCD1234EFGH',REGEXP_INSTR ('ABCD1234EFGH', '[[:digit:]]'),REGEXP_COUNT ('ABCD1234EFGH', '[[:digit:]]'))
Sample Query:
SELECT SUBSTR('003Preliminary Examination Plan ',REGEXP_INSTR ('003Preliminary Examination Plan ', '[[:digit:]]'),REGEXP_COUNT ('003Preliminary Examination Plan ', '[[:digit:]]')) SAMPLE1,
SUBSTR('Coordination005',REGEXP_INSTR ('Coordination005', '[[:digit:]]'),REGEXP_COUNT ('Coordination005', '[[:digit:]]')) SAMPLE2,
SUBSTR('Balance1000sheet',REGEXP_INSTR ('Balance1000sheet', '[[:digit:]]'),REGEXP_COUNT ('Balance1000sheet', '[[:digit:]]')) SAMPLE3 FROM DUAL
If you are using Postgres and you have data like '2000 - some sample text' then try substring and position combination, otherwise if in your scenario there is no delimiter, you need to write regex:
SUBSTRING(Column_name from 0 for POSITION('-' in column_name) - 1) as
number_column_name
I have a parameter that has multiple items separated by semicolons. I need to use these items in an IN clause. For example:
parItems = 'item1;;item2;;item3'
Then I need to add to a sql like this:
SELECT somestuff, morestuff FROM sometable WHERE item in (parItems)
Is there an easy way to get this done?
I am sorry. It will be on Reporting Services looking at a MSSQL DB not a Oracle ODBC as I previously stated
You can. But you'll need a bit of infrastructure.
You'll need a collection type defined in SQL. Assuming each item is no more than 100 bytes
CREATE TYPE item_arr
AS TABLE OF varchar2(100);
You would then need a function that parses the semicolon-separated list and returns this collection type. I would use a variant of Tom Kyte's in_list function
create or replace function in_list( p_items in varchar2 )
return item_arr
as
l_string varchar2(32000) := p_items || ';';
l_items item_arr := item_arr();
l_pos number;
begin
loop
exit when l_string is null;
l_pos := instr( l_string, ';' );
l_items.extend;
l_items(l_items.count) :=
ltrim( rtrim( substr( l_string, 1, l_pos-1 ) ) );
l_string := substr( l_string, l_pos+1 );
end loop;
return l_items;
end;
Then, you can use this function in your SQL statement
SELECT somestuff, morestuff
FROM sometable
WHERE item in (SELECT column_value
FROM TABLE( in_list( parItems )))
Just parse your string to replace the ;; with ',' and you can pass that directly to the IN ('...') statement.
'item1;;item2;;item3' --> 'item1','item2','item3'
The easiest way would be to convert your string before you pass it as a parameter.
Like this: IN ('item1','item2','item3')
Here is yet another variation; similar to Justin's answer, but for SQL Server:
Below function will return a table, which can be joined on.
CREATE FUNCTION listToTable (#list nvarchar(MAX))
RETURNS #tbl TABLE (item varchar(50) NOT NULL) AS
BEGIN
DECLARE #pos int,
#nextpos int,
#valuelen int
SELECT #pos = 0, #nextpos = 1
WHILE #nextpos > 0
BEGIN
SELECT #nextpos = charindex(';', #list, #pos + 1)
SELECT #valuelen = CASE WHEN #nextpos > 0
THEN #nextpos
ELSE len(#list) + 1
END - #pos - 1
INSERT #tbl (item)
VALUES (convert(varchar, substring(#list, #pos + 1, #valuelen)))
SELECT #pos = #nextpos
END
RETURN
END
SELECT somestuff, morestuff
FROM sometable a
join listToTable('item1;item2;item3') b
on a.columnA = b.item
Another approach, if the list is relatively short (i.e. less than 4000 characters), is to use the INSTR function:
SELECT somestuff, morestuff FROM sometable
WHERE INSTR( ';;' || parItems || ';;'
, ';;' || item || ';;'
) > 0;
The main downside to this approach, however, is that the predicate is not selective. This, however, is not always a problem depending on the amount of data.
Use AsG
Go
Drop FUNCTION AsG_inListesiOlustur
Go
CREATE FUNCTION AsG_inListesiOlustur (#pDegerListesi nvarchar(MAX), #pBossaVarsayilanDeger varchar(50))
RETURNS #pNeticeTablo TABLE (Deger varchar(50) NOT NULL) AS
BEGIN
DECLARE #Pozisyon int,
#sonrakiPozisyon int,
#uzunluk int
SELECT #Pozisyon = 0, #sonrakiPozisyon = 1
Select #pDegerListesi = LTRIM(RTRIM(#pDegerListesi))
If LEN(#pDegerListesi) = 0
Begin
If LEN(#pBossaVarsayilanDeger) > 0
Begin
INSERT #pNeticeTablo (Deger) VALUES (#pBossaVarsayilanDeger)
End
End Else
Begin
WHILE #sonrakiPozisyon > 0
BEGIN
SELECT #sonrakiPozisyon = CharIndex(',', #pDegerListesi, #Pozisyon + 1)
SELECT #uzunluk = CASE WHEN #sonrakiPozisyon > 0
THEN #sonrakiPozisyon
ELSE Len(#pDegerListesi) + 1
END - #Pozisyon - 1
INSERT #pNeticeTablo (Deger)
VALUES (Convert(varchar, SubString(#pDegerListesi, #Pozisyon + 1, #uzunluk)))
SELECT #Pozisyon = #sonrakiPozisyon
End
End
RETURN
END
Go
Select * From [AsG].[dbo].[AsG_inListesiOlustur]('1,4', '0')
Go
Select * From [AsG].[dbo].[AsG_inListesiOlustur]('', '')
Go
We have some input data that sometimes appears with   characters on the end.
The data comes in from the source system as varchar() and our attempts to cast as decimal fail b/c of these characters.
Ltrim and Rtrim don't remove the characters, so we're forced to do something like:
UPDATE myTable
SET myColumn = replace(myColumn,char(160),'')
WHERE charindex(char(160),myColumn) > 0
This works for the  , but is there a good way to do this for any non-alphanumeric (or in this case numeric) characters?
This will remove all non alphanumeric chracters
CREATE FUNCTION [dbo].[fnRemoveBadCharacter]
(
#BadString nvarchar(20)
)
RETURNS nvarchar(20)
AS
BEGIN
DECLARE #nPos INTEGER
SELECT #nPos = PATINDEX('%[^a-zA-Z0-9_]%', #BadString)
WHILE #nPos > 0
BEGIN
SELECT #BadString = STUFF(#BadString, #nPos, 1, '')
SELECT #nPos = PATINDEX('%[^a-zA-Z0-9_]%', #BadString)
END
RETURN #BadString
END
Use the function like:
UPDATE TableToUpdate
SET ColumnToUpdate = dbo.fnRemoveBadCharacter(ColumnToUpdate)
WHERE whatever
This page has a sample of how you can remove non-alphanumeric chars:
-- Put something like this into a user function:
DECLARE #cString VARCHAR(32)
DECLARE #nPos INTEGER
SELECT #cString = '90$%45623 *6%}~:#'
SELECT #nPos = PATINDEX('%[^0-9]%', #cString)
WHILE #nPos > 0
BEGIN
SELECT #cString = STUFF(#cString, #nPos, 1, '')
SELECT #nPos = PATINDEX('%[^0-9]%', #cString)
END
SELECT #cString
How is the table being populated? While it is possible to scrub this in sql a better approach would be to change the column type to int and scrub the data before it's loaded into the database (SSIS). Is this an option?
For large datasets I have had better luck with this function that checks the ASCII value. I have added options to keep only alpha, numeric or alphanumeric based on the parameters.
--CleanType 1 - Remove all non alpanumeric
-- 2 - Remove only alpha
-- 3 - Remove only numeric
CREATE FUNCTION [dbo].[fnCleanString] (
#InputString varchar(8000)
, #CleanType int
, #LeaveSpaces bit
) RETURNS varchar(8000)
AS
BEGIN
-- // Declare variables
-- ===========================================================
DECLARE #Length int
, #CurLength int = 1
, #ReturnString varchar(8000)=''
SELECT #Length = len(#InputString)
-- // Begin looping through each char checking ASCII value
-- ===========================================================
WHILE (#CurLength <= (#Length+1))
BEGIN
IF (ASCII(SUBSTRING(#InputString,#CurLength,1)) between 48 and 57 AND #CleanType in (1,3) )
or (ASCII(SUBSTRING(#InputString,#CurLength,1)) between 65 and 90 AND #CleanType in (1,2) )
or (ASCII(SUBSTRING(#InputString,#CurLength,1)) between 97 and 122 AND #CleanType in (1,2) )
or (ASCII(SUBSTRING(#InputString,#CurLength,1)) = 32 AND #LeaveSpaces = 1 )
BEGIN
SET #ReturnString = #ReturnString + SUBSTRING(#InputString,#CurLength,1)
END
SET #CurLength = #CurLength + 1
END
RETURN #ReturnString
END
If the mobile could start with a Plus(+) I will use the function like this
CREATE FUNCTION [dbo].[Mobile_NoAlpha](#Mobile VARCHAR(1000))
RETURNS VARCHAR(1000)
AS
BEGIN
DECLARE #StartsWithPlus BIT = 0
--check if the mobile starts with a plus(+)
IF LEFT(#Mobile, 1) = '+'
BEGIN
SET #StartsWithPlus = 1
--Take out the plus before using the regex to eliminate invalid characters
SET #Mobile = RIGHT(#Mobile, LEN(#Mobile)-1)
END
WHILE PatIndex('%[^0-9]%', #Mobile) > 0
SET #Mobile = Stuff(#Mobile, PatIndex('%[^0-9]%', #Mobile), 1, '')
IF #StartsWithPlus = 1
SET #Mobile = '+' + #Mobile
RETURN #Mobile
END