Removing a double space in the middle of a name

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Removing a double space in the middle of a name

michael.leach2015

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October 17, 2019 at 1:38 am

#3689509

Suppose I had a list of names and one of the names was Kathy Harrison. Notice the double space after the first name. In Excel there is a function called TRIM which could remove extraneous spaces. I am trying to find something like that in SQL. As far as I know, in SQL, TRIM is used for characters other than spaces. The LTRIM and RTRIM functions are used for leading and trailing spaces.
So how would you remove a double or triple space between a first and last name.

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pietlinden SSC Guru Points: 63489 More actions · Answer 1

pietlinden

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October 17, 2019 at 2:06 am

#3689510

use REPLACE

Phil Parkin SSC Guru Points: 246955 More actions · Answer 2

michael.leach2015 wrote:

As far as I know, in SQL, TRIM is used for characters other than spaces.

Oh no it isn't. TRIM() is the equivalent of LTRIM(RTRIM()) and thus removes leading and trailing spaces.

But to replace an arbitrary number of multiple consecutive spaces with a single space, you can use the infamous triple REPLACE trick:

DECLARE @SomeText VARCHAR(500) = 'this   text  has     random multiple                spaces';

SELECT Original = @SomeText
      ,Fixed = REPLACE(REPLACE(REPLACE(@SomeText, ' ', '<>'), '><', ''), '<>', ' ');

The absence of evidence is not evidence of absence
- Martin Rees
The absence of consumable DDL, sample data and desired results is, however, evidence of the absence of my response
- Phil Parkin

pietlinden SSC Guru Points: 63489 More actions · Answer 3

Phil,

I got the REPLACE stuff to work consistently correctly only if I looped (yep, dirty word) until all the double spaces were replaced. For example, if the input string had a triple-space in it, and I replaced only double with single, I still had a double-space left in my final string. Am I just doing it wrong?

If I did something horrid like use a WHILE loop and tested for the existence of a double-space, it worked a champ. Is there an easy way around this?

thanks (and sorry for sort of hijacking the thread).

Phil Parkin SSC Guru Points: 246955 More actions · Answer 4

pietlinden wrote:

Am I just doing it wrong?

I think so! If you try plugging a string containing a triple space into my example above, you will see that it gets condensed to a single space.

Capture

The absence of evidence is not evidence of absence
- Martin Rees
The absence of consumable DDL, sample data and desired results is, however, evidence of the absence of my response
- Phil Parkin

@Taps SSC Eights! Points: 879 More actions · Answer 5

@Taps

SSC Eights!

Points: 879

October 17, 2019 at 2:27 pm

#3689726

This is so cool !

Thanks for sharing

Jeff Moden SSC Guru Points: 1004304 More actions · Answer 6

The most efficient method for reducing any number of spaces up to 8000 that I've ever seen is as follows...

 SELECT REPLACE(REPLACE(REPLACE(REPLACE(REPLACE(REPLACE(REPLACE(
            SomeStringColumn COLLATE LATIN1_GENERAL_BIN,
        ,'                                 ',' ')
        ,'                 ',' ')
        ,'         ',' ')
        ,'     ',' ')
        ,'   ',' ')
        ,'  ',' ')
        ,'  ',' ')
   FROM dbo.SomeTable
;

--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.

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