replace() remove the last character of some values

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replace() remove the last character of some values

SQL_NuB

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March 4, 2015 at 2:23 pm

#315884

in my table I have values such as
Admin -- Assistants
Finance -- Accountant
Underwriting
I have code in the query to remove [value --] so its returned as
Assistant
Accountant
Underwritin
however, if the value doesn't have [--], its remove the last character of the value (as underwritin)
am I missing something in this, or is there another way to remove the text and the dashes if it exists?
REPLACE(SUBSTRING([family],
CHARINDEX('--', [family]),
LEN([family])), '--', '') AS [JobTitles]

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Nevyn SSChampion Points: 14210 More actions · Answer 1

The CHARINDEX gives you a 0 if there is no --

When you use 0 as the start position for substring it messes it up. Here is the MSDN page on SUBSTRING.

Take note of the following about START:

Is an integer or bigint expression that specifies where the returned characters start. If start is less than 1, the returned expression will begin at the first character that is specified in expression. In this case, the number of characters that are returned is the largest value of either the sum of start + length- 1 or 0. If start is greater than the number of characters in the value expression, a zero-length expression is returned.

ScottPletcher SSC Guru Points: 101087 More actions · Answer 2

LEFT(family, CHARINDEX('--', [family] + '--') - 2)

Edit: Added the "- 2".

SQL DBA,SQL Server MVP(07, 08, 09) "It's a dog-eat-dog world, and I'm wearing Milk-Bone underwear." "Norm", on "Cheers". Also from "Cheers", from "Carla": "You need to know 3 things about Tortelli men: Tortelli men draw women like flies; Tortelli men treat women like flies; Tortelli men's brains are in their flies".

Jeff Moden SSC Guru Points: 1004307 More actions · Answer 3

What's wrong with just doing a replacement?

UPDATE tgt

SET Family = REPLACE(Family,'--','')

FROM dbo.yourtable

WHERE Family LIKE '%--%'

;

--Jeff Moden

RBAR is pronounced "ree-bar" and is a "Modenism" for Row-By-Agonizing-Row.
First step towards the paradigm shift of writing Set Based code:
________Stop thinking about what you want to do to a ROW... think, instead, of what you want to do to a COLUMN.

Change is inevitable... Change for the better is not.

Helpful Links:
How to post code problems
How to Post Performance Problems
Create a Tally Function (fnTally)

SQL_NuB Hall of Fame Points: 3666 More actions · Answer 4

Jeff Moden (3/4/2015)
What's wrong with just doing a replacement?
UPDATE tgt
SET Family = REPLACE(Family,'--','')
FROM dbo.yourtable
WHERE Family LIKE '%--%'
;

there are other apps using the tables that I'm pulling from, so we can't do an update. It crossed my mind, but can't.

ScottPletcher SSC Guru Points: 101087 More actions · Answer 5

SQL_NuB (3/4/2015)
Jeff Moden (3/4/2015)
What's wrong with just doing a replacement?
UPDATE tgt
SET Family = REPLACE(Family,'--','')
FROM dbo.yourtable
WHERE Family LIKE '%--%'
;
there are other apps using the tables that I'm pulling from, so we can't do an update. It crossed my mind, but can't.

Yeah, I'd be extremely careful before just arbitrarily discarding potential delimiters in a column value.

SQL DBA,SQL Server MVP(07, 08, 09) "It's a dog-eat-dog world, and I'm wearing Milk-Bone underwear." "Norm", on "Cheers". Also from "Cheers", from "Carla": "You need to know 3 things about Tortelli men: Tortelli men draw women like flies; Tortelli men treat women like flies; Tortelli men's brains are in their flies".

Jeff Moden SSC Guru Points: 1004307 More actions · Answer 6

SQL_NuB (3/4/2015)
Jeff Moden (3/4/2015)
What's wrong with just doing a replacement?
UPDATE tgt
SET Family = REPLACE(Family,'--','')
FROM dbo.yourtable
WHERE Family LIKE '%--%'
;
there are other apps using the tables that I'm pulling from, so we can't do an update. It crossed my mind, but can't.

Ah, crud. I totally misread the original post. My apologies.

--Jeff Moden

RBAR is pronounced "ree-bar" and is a "Modenism" for Row-By-Agonizing-Row.
First step towards the paradigm shift of writing Set Based code:
________Stop thinking about what you want to do to a ROW... think, instead, of what you want to do to a COLUMN.

Change is inevitable... Change for the better is not.

Helpful Links:
How to post code problems
How to Post Performance Problems
Create a Tally Function (fnTally)

SQL_NuB Hall of Fame Points: 3666 More actions · Answer 7

ScottPletcher (3/4/2015)
LEFT(family, CHARINDEX('--', [family] + '--') - 2)
Edit: Added the "- 2".

when I add this, its removing the text before the [--].

Dwain Camps SSC Guru Points: 86948 More actions · Answer 8

Late to the party, but perhaps this does what you're looking for:

WITH SampleData (s) AS

(

SELECT 'Admin -- Assistants'

UNION ALL SELECT 'Finance -- Accountant'

UNION ALL SELECT 'Underwriting'

)

SELECT s, REPLACE(STUFF(s, 1, CHARINDEX('--', s), ''), '- ', '')

FROM SampleData;

My mantra: No loops! No CURSORs! No RBAR! Hoo-uh![/I]
My thought question: Have you ever been told that your query runs too fast?

My advice:
INDEXing a poor-performing query is like putting sugar on cat food. Yeah, it probably tastes better but are you sure you want to eat it?
The path of least resistance can be a slippery slope. Take care that fixing your fixes of fixes doesn't snowball and end up costing you more than fixing the root cause would have in the first place.

Need to UNPIVOT? Why not CROSS APPLY VALUES instead?[/url]
Since random numbers are too important to be left to chance, let's generate some![/url]
Learn to understand recursive CTEs by example.[/url]
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