I have seen several similar questions but none cover what I need. I need to put another THEN statement after the first one. My column contains int's. When it returns NULL I need it to display a blank space, but when I try the below code, I just get '0'.
CASE
WHEN Column1 IS NULL
THEN ''
ELSE Column1
END
If I try to put a sting after THEN then it tells me that it cannot convert it from int. I need to convert it to varchar and then change its output to a blank space afterwards, such as:
e.g.
CASE
WHEN Column1 IS NULL
THEN CONVERT(varchar(10), Column1)
THEN ''
ELSE Column1
END
Is there a way of doing this?
Thanks
Rob
A case expression returns a single value -- with a given type. If you want a string result, then you need to be sure that all paths in the case return strings:
CASE WHEN Column1 IS NULL
THEN ''
ELSE CAST(Column1 AS VARCHAR(255))
END
This is more simply written using COALESCE():
COALESCE(CAST(Column1 as VARCHAR(255)), '')
You cannot display an integer as a "blank" (other than using a NULL value).
I am trying to optimize a humongous SQL query that was written by a self taught developer that used a ton of functions instead of JOINS. Anyway, I am having trouble displaying a space or a empty string('') when there is no value in the field selected. I've included only the SELECT in question. I am having the weirdest problem or just overlooking the correct answer in troubleshooting. Whenever I use COALESCE, when the field is supposed to be a blank string, it displays a zero. And when I use IS NULL, I get back NULL. All info online seems to point toward using COALESCE(value, '') as depicted in the code. But I am getting a 0 instead of ''. Does anyone see what I'm doing wrong? I'm using SSMS.
SELECT
pss8.dbo.xml_StripIllegalChars(dbo.rpt_get_series_volume(b.bookkey)) AS p_seriesvol --SELECT to be replaced that works but is slow due to function use I am told
,COALESCE(bd.seriesvolume, '') AS p_seriesvol --my SELECT that won't work!
FROM
bookdetail bd
WHERE
--bd.bookkey='303177'
bd.bookkey='6002'
The bookkeys at the bottom are for testing as I know the top one returns a 1 and the bottom one returns a '' previously when it worked. The SELECT above my commented SELECT is the code that works but is slow... According to what I read online, I am saying 'if there isn't a series volume number, then it equals an empty string.' Does COALESCE not work like this? Can it only return a 0 if the field has no value, or in this case, has no volume number? All help much appreciated. I'm very curious to hear a solution!
Here's more intel. This is how the this SELECT works:
pss8.dbo.xml_StripIllegalChars(dbo.rpt_get_series_volume(b.bookkey)) AS p_seriesvol
The
.rpt_get_series_vol
function manages to create an empty string with this code... Does this reveal anything?
DECLARE #RETURN
VARCHAR(5)
DECLARE #v_desc
VARCHAR(5)
DECLARE #i_volumenumber INT
SELECT #i_volumenumber = volumenumber
FROM bookdetail
WHERE bookkey = #i_bookkey and volumenumber <> 0
IF #i_volumenumber > 0
BEGIN
SELECT #RETURN = CAST(#i_volumenumber as varchar(5))
END
ELSE
BEGIN
SELECT #RETURN = ''
END
RETURN #RETURN
END
As you are looking for a '0' not a NULL COALESCE()is not useful, instead use a simple CASE:
select
...,
case bd.seriesvolume when '0' then '' else bd.seriesvolume end as p_seriesvol
from
...
Or if you want '' for 0 or NULL
case when bd.seriesvolume is null or bd.seriesvolume = '0' then '' else bd.seriesvolume end as p_seriesvo
COALESCE() function returns the 1st non null value
SELECT COALESCE(NULL, NULL, 'third_value', 'fourth_value'); returns the third value because the third value is the first value that is not null.
So in your case COALESCE(bd.seriesvolume, '') AS p_seriesvol if seriesvolume colum value is null then it will return blank string
I have a very but tricky question for you guys. So, listen I have a field with spaces and numbers in one of my table columns. The key part is transform the content in a decimal field. The drawback is basically that for some rows I could get something like:
' 1584.00 '
' 156546'
'545.00 '
' '
So, to clean up my column, I have done a LTRIM and RTRIM so spaces gone. So now for a couple of records where the record were just spaces the new content is ''. Finally I need to convert this result to a decimal.
Issue: The thing is that for field that contend just the spaces the new result is '' and I'm not able to apply a REPLACE on this because it's a blank and the code below doesn't work:
SELECT REPLACE('','','0')
-- Final current verison
SELECT CAST(COALESCE(REPLACE(REPLACE([Gross_Weight],' ','0'),',',''),'0') AS DECIMAL(13,3))
How could I figure it out?
thanks so much
SELECT COALESCE(NULLIF(MyColumn, ''), 0)
This has the side-effect that you will also turn NULL values into 0, which you might not want. If that's a problem then a simple CASE statement should do the trick:
SELECT CASE WHEN MyColumn = '' THEN 0 ELSE CAST(MyColumn AS DECIMAL(10, 4)) END
Obviously you'll also have to incorporate any other manipulations that you're already doing.
No need for replace, just concatenate a zero to your column, like
SELECT RTRIM('0' + LTRIM(column))
I presume your data is in a table.
Lets call this table 'DATA' and the column 'VALUE'
Then you might use the below query
UPDATE DATA SET VALUE = 0 where VALUE = ''
To select the value do the below
select case ltrim(rtrim([Gross_Weight])) when ''
THEN 0
ELSE ltrim(rtrim([Gross_Weight])) END
Let me know if i get the requirement wrong.
Quite simply, which of the following methods is better in a WHERE clause to retrieve records where the FIELD_NAME is NOT NULL and NOT Empty
WHERE DATALENGTH(FIELD_NAME) > 0
or
WHERE ISNULL(FIELD_NAME, '') <> ''
Update
I have been informed that the first method gives spurious results for some types of fields... Agree?
Firstly,
select *
from table
where column <> ''
will give exactly the same results as
select *
from table
where isnull(column, '') <> ''
because records where the condition is UNKNOWN rather than FALSE will still be filtered out. I would generally go with the first option.
DATALENGTH counts trailing spaces, which a comparison with '' does not. It is up to you whether you want ' ' to compare unequal to ''. If you do, you need DATALENGTH. If you don't, simply compare with ''.
Note that for TEXT/NTEXT types, comparisons are not supported, but DATALENGTH is.
ISNULL is the best approach instead of DATALENGTH.
I would use
WHERE ISNULL(FIELD_NAME, '') <> ''
One issue that might come up is that a record with a space in it would not be returned. Are you looking for records like that?
I'm not sure about unexpected results from DATALENGTH. I would use the ISNULL method so that SQL Server doesn't need to spend time calculating the length of the record being compared. I don't know the performance difference between the two, just a gut feeling.
if your "not empty" condition encompasses spaces then i would use the nullif
select case when nullif(' ', '') is null then 'y' else 'n' end
y
declare #d varchar(50)
set #d = null
select case when nullif(#d, '') is null then 'y' else 'n' end
y
I would use one of the following:
where coalesce(field_name, '') <> ''
or
where field_name <> '' or field_name is not null
or
where field_name <> ''
The first is standard SQL (coalesce() is standard, isnull() is not). The last is not the most obvious, but NULL will fail the comparison and it allows the use of indexes.
RTRIM(LTRIM(ISNULL(FIELD_NAME, ''))) <> '' will handle spaces and NULLS
I am working on a SQL query that reads from a SQLServer database to produce an extract file. One of the requirements to remove the leading zeroes from a particular field, which is a simple VARCHAR(10) field. So, for example, if the field contains '00001A', the SELECT statement needs to return the data as '1A'.
Is there a way in SQL to easily remove the leading zeroes in this way? I know there is an RTRIM function, but this seems only to remove spaces.
select substring(ColumnName, patindex('%[^0]%',ColumnName), 10)
select replace(ltrim(replace(ColumnName,'0',' ')),' ','0')
You can use this:
SELECT REPLACE(LTRIM(REPLACE('000010A', '0', ' ')),' ', '0')
I had the same need and used this:
select
case
when left(column,1) = '0'
then right(column, (len(column)-1))
else column
end
select substring(substring('B10000N0Z', patindex('%[0]%','B10000N0Z'), 20),
patindex('%[^0]%',substring('B10000N0Z', patindex('%[0]%','B10000N0Z'),
20)), 20)
returns N0Z, that is, will get rid of leading zeroes and anything that comes before them.
If you want the query to return a 0 instead of a string of zeroes or any other value for that matter you can turn this into a case statement like this:
select CASE
WHEN ColumnName = substring(ColumnName, patindex('%[^0]%',ColumnName), 10)
THEN '0'
ELSE substring(ColumnName, patindex('%[^0]%',ColumnName), 10)
END
In case you want to remove the leading zeros from a string with a unknown size.
You may consider using the STUFF command.
Here is an example of how it would work.
SELECT ISNULL(STUFF(ColumnName
,1
,patindex('%[^0]%',ColumnName)-1
,'')
,REPLACE(ColumnName,'0','')
)
See in fiddler various scenarios it will cover
https://dbfiddle.uk/?rdbms=sqlserver_2012&fiddle=14c2dca84aa28f2a7a1fac59c9412d48
You can try this - it takes special care to only remove leading zeroes if needed:
DECLARE #LeadingZeros VARCHAR(10) ='-000987000'
SET #LeadingZeros =
CASE WHEN PATINDEX('%-0', #LeadingZeros) = 1 THEN
#LeadingZeros
ELSE
CAST(CAST(#LeadingZeros AS INT) AS VARCHAR(10))
END
SELECT #LeadingZeros
Or you can simply call
CAST(CAST(#LeadingZeros AS INT) AS VARCHAR(10))
Here is the SQL scalar value function that removes leading zeros from string:
SET ANSI_NULLS ON
GO
SET QUOTED_IDENTIFIER ON
GO
-- =============================================
-- Author: Vikas Patel
-- Create date: 01/31/2019
-- Description: Remove leading zeros from string
-- =============================================
CREATE FUNCTION dbo.funRemoveLeadingZeros
(
-- Add the parameters for the function here
#Input varchar(max)
)
RETURNS varchar(max)
AS
BEGIN
-- Declare the return variable here
DECLARE #Result varchar(max)
-- Add the T-SQL statements to compute the return value here
SET #Result = #Input
WHILE LEFT(#Result, 1) = '0'
BEGIN
SET #Result = SUBSTRING(#Result, 2, LEN(#Result) - 1)
END
-- Return the result of the function
RETURN #Result
END
GO
To remove the leading 0 from month following statement will definitely work.
SELECT replace(left(Convert(nvarchar,GETDATE(),101),2),'0','')+RIGHT(Convert(nvarchar,GETDATE(),101),8)
Just Replace GETDATE() with the date field of your Table.
To remove leading 0, You can multiply number column with 1
Eg: Select (ColumnName * 1)
select CASE
WHEN TRY_CONVERT(bigint,Mtrl_Nbr) = 0
THEN ''
ELSE substring(Mtrl_Nbr, patindex('%[^0]%',Mtrl_Nbr), 18)
END
you can try this
SELECT REPLACE(columnname,'0','') FROM table
I borrowed from ideas above. This is neither fast nor elegant. but it is accurate.
CASE
WHEN left(column, 3) = '000' THEN right(column, (len(column)-3))
WHEN left(column, 2) = '00' THEN right(a.column, (len(column)-2))
WHEN left(column, 1) = '0' THEN right(a.column, (len(column)-1))
ELSE
END
select ltrim('000045', '0') from dual;
LTRIM
-----
45
This should do.