I have a large table of data where some of my columns contain line breaks. I would like to remove them and replace them with some spaces instead.
Can anybody tell me how to do this in SQL Server?
Thanks in advance
SELECT REPLACE(REPLACE(#str, CHAR(13), ''), CHAR(10), '')
This should work, depending on how the line breaks are encoded:
update t
set col = replace(col, '
', ' ')
where col like '%
%';
That is, in SQL Server, a string can contain a new line character.
#Gordon's answer should work, but in case you're not sure how your line breaks are encoded, you can use the ascii function to return the character value. For example:
declare #entry varchar(50) =
'Before break
after break'
declare #max int = len(#entry)
; with CTE as (
select 1 as id
, substring(#entry, 1, 1) as chrctr
, ascii(substring(#entry, 1, 1)) as code
union all
select id + 1
, substring(#entry, ID + 1, 1)
, ascii(substring(#entry, ID + 1, 1))
from CTE
where ID <= #max)
select chrctr, code from cte
print replace(replace(#entry, char(13) , ' '), char(10) , ' ')
Depending where your text is coming from, there are different encodings for a line break. In my test string I put the most common.
First I replace all CHAR(10) (Line feed) with CHAR(13) (Carriage return), then all doubled CRs to one CR and finally all CRs to the wanted replace (you want a blank, I put a dot for better visability:
Attention: Switch the output to "text", otherwise you wont see any linebreaks...
DECLARE #text VARCHAR(100)='test single 10' + CHAR(10) + 'test 13 and 10' + CHAR(13) + CHAR(10) + 'test single 13' + CHAR(13) + 'end of test';
SELECT #text
DECLARE #ReplChar CHAR='.';
SELECT REPLACE(REPLACE(REPLACE(#text,CHAR(10),CHAR(13)),CHAR(13)+CHAR(13),CHAR(13)),CHAR(13),#ReplChar);
I have the same issue, means I have a column having values with line breaks in it. I use the query
update `your_table_name` set your_column_name = REPLACE(your_column_name,'\n','')
And this resolves my issue :)
Basically '\n' is the character for Enter key or line break and in this query, I have replaced it with no space (which I want)
Keep Learning :)
zain
Related
How to check if any of this !##$%^&*()_-+ special characters exist in a string ?
i tried
SELECT PATINDEX('!##$%^&*()_-+', 'test-');
SELECT PATINDEX('[!##$%^&*()_-+]', 'test-');
SELECT PATINDEX('%[!##$%^&*()_-+]%', 'test-');
but all returns 0, it should return 5, any help ?
The - is a special character in the LIKE or PATINDEX() pattern. If it is anywhere other than the first position, it is a range of characters -- such as all digits being represented by [0-9].
You can do what you want by moving the condition:
PATINDEX('%[-!##$%^&*()_+]%', 'test-'),
Unfortunately, PATINDEX() patterns don't support an escape character. You can also express this logic as a LIKE and CASE:
(CASE WHEN 'test-' LIKE '%[-!##$%^&*()_+]%' ESCAPE '$' THEN 1 ELSE 0 END)
Or using a "not" pattern:
(CASE WHEN 'test-' NOT LIKE '%[^0-9a-zA-Z]%' THEN 0 ELSE 1 END)
You can use negation:
SELECT PATINDEX('%[^a-Z]%', 'test-');
This will find a character NOT in the range a-Z.
SELECT PATINDEX('%[-+!_#()*^#$%&]%', 'test-');
this solves my issue returns 5 the positon of -.
Apperently order matters.
DECLARE #myString VARCHAR(100) ='test-'
IF (#myString LIKE '%[^a-zA-Z0-9]%')
PRINT 'Contains "special" characters'
ELSE
PRINT 'Does not contain "special" characters'
select patindex('%[' + char(45) + ']%', 'test-');
But symbol '-' not working in range values, replace this symbol on another symbol
Next example find only writable symbols in #string:
declare #string varchar(max) = char(8) + char(9) + char(10) + char(11) + char(12) + char(13) + '-test string-';
select patindex(%[' + char(33) + '-' + char(255) + ']%', replace(#string, '-', '#'))
I'm trying to use CHAR(13) to force a new line, but the problem is, I'm doing this within a FOR XML Select statement:
SELECT
STUFF((SELECT CHAR(13) + Comment
FROM
myTable
FOR XML PATH ('')) , 1, 1, '')
The problem with this, is that I don't get an actual new line. Instead, I get:
#x0D;
So the data literally looks like this:
#x0D;First Line of Data#x0D;Second Line of Data#x0D;Etc
So I tried to just replace #x0D; with CHAR(13) outside of the FOR XML:
REPLACE(SELECT
STUFF((SELECT CHAR(13) + Comment
FROM
myTable
FOR XML PATH ('')) , 1, 1, '')), '#x0D;', CHAR(13))
This gets me close. It DOES add in the line breaks, but it also includes an & at the end of each line, and the start of each line after the first:
First Line of Data&
&Second Line of Data&
&Etc
Your approach is not real XML:
Try this with "output to text":
DECLARE #tbl TABLE(TestText VARCHAR(100));
INSERT INTO #tbl VALUES('line 1'),('line 2'),('line 3');
SELECT STUFF
(
(
SELECT CHAR(10) + tbl.TestText
FROM #tbl AS tbl
FOR XML PATH('')
),1,1,''
)
With CHAR(13)
#x0D;line 1
line 2
line 3
See that your STUFF just took away the ampersand?
With CHAR(10)
line 1
line 2
line 3
But what you really need is:
SELECT STUFF
(
(
SELECT CHAR(10) + tbl.TestText --you might use 13 and 10 here
FROM #tbl AS tbl
FOR XML PATH(''),TYPE
).value('.','nvarchar(max)'),1,1,''
)
The ,TYPE will return real XML and with .value() you read this properly.
Some background
You have a misconception of "So the data literally looks like this"
It does not "look like this", it is escaped to fit to the rules within XML. And it will be back encoded implicitly, when you read it correctly.
And you have a misconception of line breaks:
In (almost) ancient times you needed a CR = Carriage Return, 13 or x0D to move back the printing sledge and additionally you needed a LF = Line Feed, 10 or x0A to turn the platen to move the paper. Hence the widely used need to have a line break coded with two characters (13/10 or 0D/0A).
Today the ASCII 10 (0A) is often seen alone...
But back to your actual problem: Why do you bother about the look of your data? Within XML some string might look ugly, but - if you read this properly - the decoding back to the original look is done implicitly...
Your residues are not more than part of the encoding as this starts with an ampersand and ends with a semicolon: ≶ or
. Your attempt to replace this is just one character to short. But anyway: You should not do this!
Just try:
SELECT CAST('<x>Hello</x>' AS XML).value('/x[1]','nvarchar(max)')
Thanks everyone for your help.
The ultimate goal here was to present the data in Excel as part of a report. I'm sure there is a more elegant way to do this, but I at least got the results I wanted by doing this:
REPLACE (
REPLACE(
REPLACE(
(SELECT Comment FROM CallNotes WHERE ForeignId = a.ForeignId FOR XML PATH (''))
, '<Comment>', '')
, '</Comment>', CHAR(13) + CHAR(10))
, '
', '') AS Comments
The select statement all by itself returns XML as we would expect:
<comment>This is a comment</comment><comment>This is another comment</comment>
The inner most REPLACE just gets rid of the opening tag:
<comment>
The middle REPLACE removes the closing tag:
</comment>
and replaces it with CHAR(13) + CHAR(10). And the outer most REPLACE gets rid of this:
(I still don't understand where that's coming from.)
So, when the results are sent to Excel, it looks like this inside the cell:
This is a comment.
This is another comment.
Which is exactly what I want. Again, I'm sure there is a better solution. But this at least is working for now.
I think this is cleaner. Basically start with line feeds (or some other special character) then replace them with carriage returns plus line feeds if you want.
Select REPLACE(STUFF((SELECT CHAR(10) + Comment
FROM myTable FOR XML PATH ('')) , 1, 1, ''),
CHAR(10), CHAR(13)+CHAR(10))
I suppose since you need to group on the FK you can use something like this... just replace #TempT with your table...
Select Pri.ForeignKey,
Replace(Left(Pri.Notes,Len(Pri.Notes)-1),',',CHAR(13)) As Notes
From
(
Select distinct T2.ForeignKey,
(
Select T1.Note + ',' AS [text()]
From #TempT T1
Where T1.ForeignKey = T2.ForeignKey
ORDER BY T1.ForeignKey
For XML PATH ('')
) Notes
From #TempT T2
) Pri
Also in the OP that you listed in the comments, you have a duplicate PrimaryKey. I found that odd. Just a heads up.
If you use below query and results to text option you will see line breaks. Line breaks can't be shown using the results to grid functionality.
SELECT
STUFF((SELECT CHAR(10) + Comment
FROM
myTable
FOR XML PATH ('')) , 1, 1, '')
I suggest Comment + Char(10) + Char(13)
The "Carriage Return" "Line feed" should be at the end of the line.
I believe this could help:
REPLACE(STUFF ((SELECT CHAR(13)+CHAR(10) + Field1 + Field2
FROM
((table
WHERE
field3= 'condition1'
FOR XML PATH ('')), 1, 0, '') , '
' , '')
I'm dumbfounded that this question has not been asked meaningfully already. How does one go about creating an equivalent function in SQL like LTRIM or RTRIM for carriage returns and line feeds ONLY at the start or end of a string.
Obviously REPLACE(REPLACE(#MyString,char(10),''),char(13),'') removes ALL carriage returns and new line feeds. Which is NOT what I'm looking for. I just want to remove leading or trailing ones.
Find the first character that is not CHAR(13) or CHAR(10) and subtract its position from the string's length.
LTRIM()
SELECT RIGHT(#MyString,LEN(#MyString)-PATINDEX('%[^'+CHAR(13)+CHAR(10)+']%',#MyString)+1)
RTRIM()
SELECT LEFT(#MyString,LEN(#MyString)-PATINDEX('%[^'+CHAR(13)+CHAR(10)+']%',REVERSE(#MyString))+1)
Following functions are enhanced types of trim functions you can use. Copied from sqlauthority.com
These functions remove trailing spaces, leading spaces, white space, tabs, carriage returns, line feeds etc.
Trim Left
CREATE FUNCTION dbo.LTrimX(#str VARCHAR(MAX)) RETURNS VARCHAR(MAX)
AS
BEGIN
DECLARE #trimchars VARCHAR(10)
SET #trimchars = CHAR(9)+CHAR(10)+CHAR(13)+CHAR(32)
IF #str LIKE '[' + #trimchars + ']%' SET #str = SUBSTRING(#str, PATINDEX('%[^' + #trimchars + ']%', #str), LEN(#str))
RETURN #str
END
Trim Right
CREATE FUNCTION dbo.RTrimX(#str VARCHAR(MAX)) RETURNS VARCHAR(MAX)
AS
BEGIN
DECLARE #trimchars VARCHAR(10)
SET #trimchars = CHAR(9)+CHAR(10)+CHAR(13)+CHAR(32)
IF #str LIKE '%[' + #trimchars + ']'
SET #str = REVERSE(dbo.LTrimX(REVERSE(#str)))
RETURN #str
END
Trim both Left and Right
CREATE FUNCTION dbo.TrimX(#str VARCHAR(MAX)) RETURNS VARCHAR(MAX)
AS
BEGIN
RETURN dbo.LTrimX(dbo.RTrimX(#str))
END
Using function
SELECT dbo.TRIMX(#MyString)
If you do use these functions you might also consider changing from varchar to nvarchar to support more encodings.
In SQL Server 2017 you can use the TRIM function to remove specific characters from beginning and end, in one go:
WITH testdata(str) AS (
SELECT CHAR(13) + CHAR(10) + ' test ' + CHAR(13) + CHAR(10)
)
SELECT
str,
TRIM(CHAR(13) + CHAR(10) + CHAR(9) + ' ' FROM str) AS [trim cr/lf/tab/space],
TRIM(CHAR(13) + CHAR(10) FROM str) AS [trim cr/lf],
TRIM(' ' FROM str) AS [trim space]
FROM testdata
Result:
Note that the last example (trim space) does nothing as expected since the spaces are in the middle.
Here's an example you may run:
I decided to cast the results as an Xml value, so when you click on it, you will be able to view the Carriage Returns.
DECLARE #CRLF Char(2) = (CHAR(0x0D) + CHAR(0x0A))
DECLARE #String VarChar(MAX) = #CRLF + #CRLF + ' Hello' + #CRLF + 'World ' + #CRLF + #CRLF
--Unmodified String:
SELECT CAST(#String as Xml)[Unmodified]
--Remove Trailing Whitespace (including Spaces).
SELECT CAST(LEFT(#String, LEN(REPLACE(#String, #CRLF, ' '))) as Xml)[RemoveTrailingWhitespace]
--Remove Leading Whitespace (including Spaces).
SELECT CAST(RIGHT(#String, LEN(REVERSE(REPLACE(#String, #CRLF, ' ')))) as Xml)[RemoveLeadingWhitespace]
--Remove Leading & Trailing Whitespace (including Spaces).
SELECT CAST(SUBSTRING(#String, LEN(REPLACE(#String, ' ', '_')) - LEN(REVERSE(REPLACE(#String, #CRLF, ' '))) + 1, LEN(LTRIM(RTRIM(REPLACE(#String, #CRLF, ' '))))) as Xml)[RemoveAllWhitespace]
--Remove Only Leading and Trailing CR/LF's (while still preserving all other Whitespace - including Spaces). - 04/06/2016 - MCR.
SELECT CAST(SUBSTRING(#String, PATINDEX('%[^'+CHAR(13)+CHAR(10)+']%',#String), LEN(REPLACE(#String, ' ', '_')) - PATINDEX('%[^'+CHAR(13)+CHAR(10)+']%',#String) + 1 - PATINDEX('%[^'+CHAR(13)+CHAR(10)+']%', REVERSE(#String)) + 1) as Xml)[RemoveLeadingAndTrailingCRLFsOnly]
Remember to remove the Cast-to-Xml, as this was done just as a Proof-of-Concept to show it works.
How is this better than the currently Accepted Answer?
At first glance this may appear to use more Functions than the Accepted Answer.
However, this is not the case.
If you combine both approaches listed in the Accepted Answer (to remove both Trailing and Leading whitespace), you will either have to make two passes updating the Record, or copy all of one Logic into the other (everywhere #String is listed), which would cause way more function calls and become even more difficult to read.
I was stuck using Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 and so basing my functions on #sqluser's answer I came up with the below. This will return an empty string if the string only contains the characters to be trimmed.
The bit that threw me was the pattern for PATINDEX must be included between % characters, which for a while I was thinking of as the same wildcard in a LIKE statement but which I now believe is just the syntax to denote a pattern, though I may be wrong!
CREATE FUNCTION [dbo].[ExtendedLTRIM](#string_to_trim VARCHAR(MAX))
RETURNS VARCHAR(MAX)
AS
BEGIN
DECLARE #tab CHAR(1) = CHAR(9);
DECLARE #line_feed CHAR(1) = CHAR(10);
DECLARE #carriage_return CHAR(1) = CHAR(13);
DECLARE #space CHAR(1) = CHAR(32);
DECLARE #characters_to_trim VARCHAR(10)
SET #characters_to_trim = #tab + #line_feed + #carriage_return + #space
IF #string_to_trim LIKE '[' + #characters_to_trim + ']%'
BEGIN
DECLARE #first_non_trim_character INT = PATINDEX('%[^' + #characters_to_trim + ']%', #string_to_trim);
IF #first_non_trim_character = 0 RETURN '';
RETURN SUBSTRING(#string_to_trim, #first_non_trim_character, 8000)
END
RETURN #string_to_trim
END
GO
To trim characters from a pre-defined list you'll want to create the following UDF (should work in 2008R2 and above).
Handles both sides in a single pass and doesn't care if it's a CRLF, LFCR (yep, seen that abomination more than once), bare LF or a bunch of spaces.
is easy to extend to e.g. add additional parameters to do LTRIM/RTRIM only, or a full purge (that last bit is simpler to do in 2017 by incorporating STRING_AGG, but perfectly doable in 2008R2); as a matter of fact this is a simplified version of something I use to do all those things. If anybody is interested then let me know and I'll update:
CREATE FUNCTION fnTrimHarder
(
#String VARCHAR(MAX)
)
RETURNS VARCHAR(MAX)
AS
BEGIN
DECLARE
#Start INT,
#Len INT,
#Chars CHAR(5) = CONCAT(
CHAR(9), -- TAB
CHAR(10), -- LF
CHAR(13), -- CR
' '
), -- List of invalid characters
#Return VARCHAR(MAX) = '';
IF #String NOT LIKE '%[^' + #Chars + ']%' -- If string contains only invalid characters
OR COALESCE(#String, '') = '' -- Optional addition for NULL handling
RETURN #Return
ELSE
BEGIN -- Create a "table" of characters with ordinals, calculate the start of string and its length, then return the substring
WITH CTE AS (
SELECT 1 AS n
UNION ALL
SELECT n + 1
FROM CTE
WHERE n < LEN(#String)
)
SELECT
#Start = MIN(n),
#Len = 1 + MAX(n) - MIN(n)
FROM CTE
WHERE SUBSTRING(#String, n, 1) NOT LIKE '[' + #Chars + ']';
SET #Return = SUBSTRING(#String, #Start, #Len)
END
RETURN #Return
END
GO
In Below example i Want to know charindex of first character except spaces tabs newlines etc.
I am not able able to do that because CHARINDEX() function of SQL want character for index
but in my string anyone comes dynamically.
Declare #str varchar(100)
set #str=' test String'
in above case i want charindex of 't' (means first character of string)
set #str=' String test'
in above case i want charindex of 'S' (means first character of string)
Anyone please suggest me the solution.
The best way would be to come up with some kind of a regex. You can also have carriage return + line feed (linebreak) and tab -characters, which won't show correctly unless you do something like this:
DECLARE #str VARCHAR(100)
SET #str=CHAR(9)+' '+CHAR(13)+CHAR(10)+'test String'
SELECT CHARINDEX(LTRIM(REPLACE(REPLACE(REPLACE(#str,CHAR(13),' '),CHAR(10),' '),CHAR(9),' ')), #str);
SELECT SUBSTRING(#str, CHARINDEX(LTRIM(REPLACE(REPLACE(REPLACE(#str,CHAR(13),' '),CHAR(10),' '),CHAR(9),' ')), #str), 1)
The characters are as follows:
CHAR(13) = carriage return
CHAR(10) = linefeed
CHAR(13) + CHAR(10) = standard newline characters
CHAR(9) = TAB
Use Collation for Case sensitive.
Select CHARINDEX ( 'S',#str COLLATE Latin1_General_CS_AS, 1 )
You could use PATINDEX to find the position of a character that is not one of a specific subset of excluded characters:
PATINDEX('%[^list of excluded characters]%', #str)
In your case, the excluded character list would consist of CHAR(32) (space), CHAR(9) (tab), CHAR(13) (carriage return), CHAR(10) (linefeed) and whatever else you mean by the etc.. Here is an example:
DECLARE #str varchar(100);
SET #str = '
test string';
SELECT PATINDEX('%[^' + CHAR(32) + CHAR(9) + CHAR(13) + CHAR(10) + ']%', #str);
The #str in the above example begins with a newline (CHAR(13) + CHAR(10)) followed by two spaces. Therefore, the output of the SELECT statement would be this:
----------
4
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