How to replace first occurrance of pipe delimeter

Question

How to replace first occurrance of pipe delimeter

tan110

Hall of Fame

Points: 3855
More actions
November 16, 2010 at 3:43 pm

#97776

I have the following string that starts off with a pipe delimeter:
| hello | world | I love sql server
How do I strip off the first | pipe delimeter?
so that my output is like this:
hello | world | I love sql server
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tan110 Hall of Fame Points: 3855 More actions · Answer 1

some other records also come in w/o a pipe as the first character, so I don't want to strip off the first character if its not a pipe.

Kingston Dhasian SSCoach Points: 19799 More actions · Answer 2

You can use the SUBSTRING and LEN function as below..

DECLARE@strVariable VARCHAR(100)

SELECT@strVariable = '| hello | world | I love sql server'

SELECTCASE

WHEN SUBSTRING( @strVariable, 1, 1 ) = '|'

THEN SUBSTRING( @strVariable, 2, LEN( @strVariable ) - 1 )

ELSE @strVariable

END Variable

Kingston Dhasian

How to post data/code on a forum to get the best help - Jeff Moden
http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/Best+Practices/61537/

tan110 Hall of Fame Points: 3855 More actions · Answer 3

tan110

Hall of Fame

Points: 3855

November 17, 2010 at 6:01 am

#1251846

Thank you very much! Really appreciate it.

Adam Gojdas SSCommitted Points: 1766 More actions · Answer 4

For fun 2 slight variations based on Kingston's.

DECLARE @strVariable VARCHAR(100)

SELECT @strVariable = '| hello | world | I love sql server'

SELECT CASE SUBSTRING(@strVariable, 1, 1)

WHEN '|'

THEN SUBSTRING(@strVariable, 2, LEN(@strVariable) - 1)

ELSE @strVariable

END Variable

SELECT CASE CHARINDEX('|', @strVariable)

WHEN 1

THEN SUBSTRING(@strVariable, 2, LEN(@strVariable) - 1)

ELSE @strVariable

END Variable

mister.magoo SSC-Forever Points: 47174 More actions · Answer 5

And one more for luck:

If you are looking to strip a local variable:

DECLARE @strVariable VARCHAR(100)

SELECT @strVariable = '| hello | world | I love sql server'

--== Only strip out the first character if it is a pipe.

SELECT @strVariable = STUFF(@strVariable,1,1,'')

WHERE LEFT(@strVariable,1) = '|'

SELECT @strVariable

If you are stripping a column in a table:

--== If the first character is a pipe, stuff it in the bin otherwise don't

SELECT CASE

WHEN LEFT(YourColumn,1)='|' THEN STUFF(YourColumn ,1,1,'')

ELSE YourColumn

END as StrippedPipe

FROM YourTable

MM

select geometry::STGeomFromWKB(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

Stephen.Richardson Right there with Babe Points: 758 More actions · Answer 6

What about a simple "SUBSTRING" & "PATINDEX"

DECLARE @str1 VARCHAR(100), @str2 VARCHAR(100), @str3 VARCHAR(100)

SET @str1 = 'hello | world | I love sql server'

SET @str2 = '| '+@str1

SET @str3 = '| | | ' + @str1

SELECT '*'+@str1+'*', '*'+SUBSTRING(@str1,PATINDEX('%[0-z]%', @str1), LEN(@str1))+'*'

SELECT '*'+@str2+'*', '*'+SUBSTRING(@str2,PATINDEX('%[0-z]%', @str2), LEN(@str2))+'*'

SELECT '*'+@str3+'*', '*'+SUBSTRING(@str3,PATINDEX('%[0-z]%', @str3), LEN(@str3))+'*'

*hello | world | I love sql server**hello | world | I love sql server*

WayneS SSC Guru Points: 95461 More actions · Answer 7

If it will always be the first two characters that you want removed, just use the STUFF function:

declare @STR varchar(500);

set @STR = '| hello | world | I love sql server';

select stuff(@str, 1, 2, '');

Wayne
Microsoft Certified Master: SQL Server 2008
Author - SQL Server T-SQL Recipes

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GSquared SSC Guru Points: 260824 More actions · Answer 8

WayneS (12/27/2010)
If it will always be the first two characters that you want removed, just use the STUFF function:
declare @STR varchar(500);
set @STR = '| hello | world | I love sql server';
select stuff(@str, 1, 2, '');

And if you want to do that to rows in a table, just add a Where clause that checks "Where MyStringColumn like '|%'".

- Gus "GSquared", RSVP, OODA, MAP, NMVP, FAQ, SAT, SQL, DNA, RNA, UOI, IOU, AM, PM, AD, BC, BCE, USA, UN, CF, ROFL, LOL, ETC
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