Thanks Lynn.  It worked perfect.

Thanks Lynn, actually I am looking for a statement that would give me a result before the dash because the number before the dash (-) could vary.

It still worked when I executed manually.  However, when I schedule it thru a job I got nothing even though sql server log didn't have any error return.??????

Thanks Sriram. 

What if I have several more columns after columnb?  I tried your query when I have several columns after columnb and the query didn't work.