Finding Uppercase Character then Adding Space - sql

Question

I bought a SQL World City/State database. In the state database it has the state names pushed together. Example: "NorthCarolina", or "SouthCarolina"...
IS there a way in SQL to loop and find the uppercase characters and add a space???
this way "NorthCarolina" becomes "North Carolina"???

Answer 1

Create this function
if object_id('dbo.SpaceBeforeCaps') is not null
drop function dbo.SpaceBeforeCaps
GO
create function dbo.SpaceBeforeCaps(#s varchar(100)) returns varchar(100)
as
begin
declare #return varchar(100);
set #return = left(#s,1);
declare #i int;
set #i = 2;
while #i <= len(#s)
begin
if ASCII(substring(#s,#i,1)) between ASCII('A') and ASCII('Z')
set #return = #return + ' ' + substring(#s,#i,1)
else
set #return = #return + substring(#s,#i,1)
set #i = #i + 1;
end;
return #return;
end;
GO
Then you can use it to update your database
update tbl set statename = select dbo.SpaceBeforeCaps(statename);

Answer 2

There's a couple ways to approach this
Construct a function using a pattern and the PATINDEX feature.
Chain minimal REPLACE statements for each case (e.g. REPLACE(state_name, 'hC', 'h C' for your example case). This seems is kind of a hack, but might actually give you the best performance, since you have such a small set of replacements.

Answer 3

If you absolutely cannot create functions and need this as a one-off, you can use a recursive CTE to break the string up (and add the space at the same time where required), then recombine the characters using FOR XML. Elaborate example below:
-- some sample data
create table #tmp (id int identity primary key, statename varchar(100));
insert #tmp select 'NorthCarolina';
insert #tmp select 'SouthCarolina';
insert #tmp select 'NewSouthWales';
-- the complex query updating the "statename" column in the "#tmp" table
;with cte(id,seq,char,rest) as (
select id,1,cast(left(statename,1) as varchar(2)), stuff(statename,1,1,'')
from #tmp
union all
select id,seq+1,case when ascii(left(rest,1)) between ascii('A') and ascii('Z')
then ' ' else '' end + left(rest,1)
, stuff(rest,1,1,'')
from cte
where rest > ''
), recombined as (
select a.id, (select b.char+''
from cte b
where a.id = b.id
order by b.seq
for xml path, type).value('/','varchar(100)') fixed
from cte a
group by a.id
)
update t
set statename = c.fixed
from #tmp t
join recombined c on c.id = t.id
where statename != c.fixed;
-- check the result
select * from #tmp
----------- -----------
id statename
----------- -----------
1 North Carolina
2 South Carolina
3 New South Wales