How to remove multiple characters between 2 special characters in a column in SSIS expression - tsql

Question

I want to remove the multiple characters starting from '#' till the ';' in derived column expression in SSIS.
For example,
my input column values are,
and want the output as,
Note: Length after '#' is not fixed.
Already tried in SQL but want to do it via SSIS derived column expression.

Answer 1

First of all: Please do not post pictures. We prefer copy-and-pastable sample data. And please try to provide a minimal, complete and reproducible example, best served as DDL, INSERT and code as I do it here for you.
And just to mention this: If you control the input, you should not mix information within one string... If this is needed, try to use a "real" text container like XML or JSON.
SQL-Server is not meant for string manipulation. There is no RegEx or repeated/nested pattern matching. So we would have to use a recursive / procedural / looping approach. But - if performance is not so important - you might use a XML hack.
--DDL and INSERT
DECLARE #tbl TABLE(ID INT IDENTITY,YourString VARCHAR(1000));
INSERT INTO #tbl VALUES('Here is one without')
,('One#some comment;in here')
,('Two comments#some comment;in here#here is the second;and some more text')
--The query
SELECT t.ID
,t.YourString
,CAST(REPLACE(REPLACE((SELECT t.YourString AS [*] FOR XML PATH('')),'#','<!--'),';','--> ') AS XML) SeeTheIntermediateXML
,CAST(REPLACE(REPLACE((SELECT t.YourString AS [*] FOR XML PATH('')),'#','<!--'),';','--> ') AS XML).value('.','nvarchar(max)') CleanedValue
FROM #tbl t
The result
+----+-------------------------------------------------------------------------+-----------------------------------------+
| ID | YourString | CleanedValue |
+----+-------------------------------------------------------------------------+-----------------------------------------+
| 1 | Here is one without | Here is one without |
+----+-------------------------------------------------------------------------+-----------------------------------------+
| 2 | One#some comment;in here | One in here |
+----+-------------------------------------------------------------------------+-----------------------------------------+
| 3 | Two comments#some comment;in here#here is the second;and some more text | Two comments in here and some more text |
+----+-------------------------------------------------------------------------+-----------------------------------------+
The idea in short:
Using some string methods we can wrap your unwanted text in XML comments.
Look at this
Two comments<!--some comment--> in here<!--here is the second--> and some more text
Reading this XML with .value() the content will be returned without the comments.
Hint 1: Use '-->;' in your replacement to keep the semi-colon as delimiter.
Hint 2: If there might be a semi-colon ; somewhere else in your string, you would see the --> in the result. In this case you'd need a third REPLACE() against the resulting string.