How to replace a string in a SQL Server Table Column - sql

Question

I have a table (SQL Sever) which references paths (UNC or otherwise), but now the path is going to change.
In the path column, I have many records and I need to change just a portion of the path, but not the entire path. And I need to change the same string to the new one, in every record.
How can I do this with a simple update?

Answer 1

It's this easy:
update my_table
set path = replace(path, 'oldstring', 'newstring')

Answer 2

UPDATE [table]
SET [column] = REPLACE([column], '/foo/', '/bar/')

Answer 3

I tried the above but it did not yield the correct result. The following one does:
update table
set path = replace(path, 'oldstring', 'newstring') where path = 'oldstring'

Answer 4

UPDATE CustomReports_Ta
SET vchFilter = REPLACE(CAST(vchFilter AS nvarchar(max)), '\\Ingl-report\Templates', 'C:\Customer_Templates')
where CAST(vchFilter AS nvarchar(max)) LIKE '%\\Ingl-report\Templates%'
Without the CAST function I got an error
Argument data type ntext is invalid for argument 1 of replace function.

Answer 5

You can use this query
update table_name set column_name = replace (column_name , 'oldstring' ,'newstring') where column_name like 'oldstring%'

Answer 6

all answers are great but I just want to give you a good example
select replace('this value from table', 'table', 'table but updated')
this SQL statement will replace the existence of the word "table"
(second parameter) inside the given statement(first parameter) with the third parameter
the initial value is this value from table but after executing replace function it will be this value from table but updated
and here is a real example
UPDATE publication
SET doi = replace(doi, '10.7440/perifrasis', '10.25025/perifrasis')
WHERE doi like '10.7440/perifrasis%'
for example if we have this value
10.7440/perifrasis.2010.1.issue-1
it will become
10.25025/perifrasis.2010.1.issue-1
hope this gives you better visualization

Answer 7

select replace(ImagePath, '~/', '../') as NewImagePath from tblMyTable
where "ImagePath" is my column Name. "NewImagePath" is temporery
column Name insted of "ImagePath" "~/" is my current string.(old
string) "../" is my requried string.(new string)
"tblMyTable" is my table in database.

Answer 8

you need to replace path with the help of replace function.
update table_name set column_name = replace(column_name, 'oldstring', 'newstring')
here column_name refers to that column which you want to change.
Hope it will work.

Answer 9

If target column type is other than varchar/nvarchar like text, we need to cast the column value as string and then convert it as:
update URL_TABLE
set Parameters = REPLACE ( cast(Parameters as varchar(max)), 'india', 'bharat')
where URL_ID='150721_013359670'

Answer 10

You also can replace large text for email template at run time, here is an simple example for that.
DECLARE #xml NVARCHAR(MAX)
SET #xml = CAST((SELECT [column] AS 'td','',
,[StartDate] AS 'td'
FROM [table]
FOR XML PATH('tr'), ELEMENTS ) AS NVARCHAR(MAX))
select REPLACE((EmailTemplate), '[#xml]', #xml) as Newtemplate
FROM [dbo].[template] where id = 1