I have inherited this line of code. Normally, I would expect what occurs after the As to be an alias. However, I have never seen an alias in square brackets. Also, I'm not sure what the parens in text() signify? Is text an obsolete data type? Is there any link someone can send me so I can figure out what this means?
Thank you.
The [text()] alias is often used in XML queries to make the value from a column become the text output in an element:
DECLARE #Table TABLE (FieldText varchar(10))
INSERT INTO #Table VALUES ('some text'), ('more text')
SELECT FieldText
FROM #Table
FOR XML PATH('RECORD'), ROOT('ROOT'), TYPE
--<ROOT>
-- <RECORD>
-- <FieldText>some text</FieldText>
-- </RECORD>
-- <RECORD>
-- <FieldText>more text</FieldText>
-- </RECORD>
--</ROOT>
SELECT FieldText as [text()]
FROM #Table
FOR XML PATH('RECORD'), ROOT('ROOT'), TYPE
--<ROOT>
-- <RECORD>some text</RECORD>
-- <RECORD>more text</RECORD>
--</ROOT>
However, I have never seen an alias in square brackets
It can be, if you are trying to use a keyword/reserveword as your alias name (OR) if you are trying to use a name which has spaces between them like My Special Alias name
Using As [text()] looks bit weird to me. No it doesn't signifies anything. Alias names are just text literal for better readable name but I would suggest use proper name which increases readability else there is no point in using alias name(s).
It is a little odd, for a field name, but the Brackets are nothing new
Declare #Table table (test varchar(25))
Insert into #Table values ('Some Value')
Select Test as [text()] From #Table
Returns
text()
Some Value
Use can use brackets for non-standard field names i.e. [Total Sales]
Microsoft SQL Server formats Alias' in queries in square brackets
Related
I am trying to insert some text data into a table in SQL Server 9.
The text includes a single quote '.
How do I escape that?
I tried using two single quotes, but it threw me some errors.
eg. insert into my_table values('hi, my name''s tim.');
Single quotes are escaped by doubling them up, just as you've shown us in your example. The following SQL illustrates this functionality. I tested it on SQL Server 2008:
DECLARE #my_table TABLE (
[value] VARCHAR(200)
)
INSERT INTO #my_table VALUES ('hi, my name''s tim.')
SELECT * FROM #my_table
Results
value
==================
hi, my name's tim.
If escaping your single quote with another single quote isn't working for you (like it didn't for one of my recent REPLACE() queries), you can use SET QUOTED_IDENTIFIER OFF before your query, then SET QUOTED_IDENTIFIER ON after your query.
For example
SET QUOTED_IDENTIFIER OFF;
UPDATE TABLE SET NAME = REPLACE(NAME, "'S", "S");
SET QUOTED_IDENTIFIER ON;
-- set OFF then ON again
How about:
insert into my_table values('hi, my name' + char(39) + 's tim.')
Many of us know that the Popular Method of Escaping Single Quotes is by Doubling them up easily like below.
PRINT 'It''s me, Arul.';
we are going to look on some other alternate ways of escaping the single quotes.
1. UNICODE Characters
39 is the UNICODE character of Single Quote. So we can use it like below.
PRINT 'Hi,it'+CHAR(39)+'s Arul.';
PRINT 'Helo,it'+NCHAR(39)+'s Arul.';
2. QUOTED_IDENTIFIER
Another simple and best alternate solution is to use QUOTED_IDENTIFIER.
When QUOTED_IDENTIFIER is set to OFF, the strings can be enclosed in double quotes.
In this scenario, we don’t need to escape single quotes.
So,this way would be very helpful while using lot of string values with single quotes.
It will be very much helpful while using so many lines of INSERT/UPDATE scripts where column values having single quotes.
SET QUOTED_IDENTIFIER OFF;
PRINT "It's Arul."
SET QUOTED_IDENTIFIER ON;
CONCLUSION
The above mentioned methods are applicable to both AZURE and On Premises .
2 ways to work around this:
for ' you can simply double it in the string, e.g.
select 'I''m happpy' -- will get: I'm happy
For any charactor you are not sure of: in sql server you can get any char's unicode by select unicode(':') (you keep the number)
So this case you can also select 'I'+nchar(39)+'m happpy'
The doubling up of the quote should have worked, so it's peculiar that it didn't work for you; however, an alternative is using double quote characters, instead of single ones, around the string. I.e.,
insert into my_table values("hi, my name's tim.");
Also another thing to be careful of is whether or not it is really stored as a classic ASCII ' (ASCII 27) or Unicode 2019 (which looks similar, but not the same). This isn't a big deal on inserts, but it can mean the world on selects and updates. If it's the unicode value then escaping the ' in a WHERE clause (e.g where blah = 'Workers''s Comp') will return like the value you are searching for isn't there if the ' in "Worker's Comp" is actually the unicode value.If your client application supports free-key, as well as copy and paste based input, it could be Unicode in some rows, and ASCII in others!
A simple way to confirm this is by doing some kind of open ended query that will bring back the value you are searching for, and then copy and paste that into notepad++ or some other unicode supporting editor. The differing appearance between the ascii value and the unicode one should be obvious to the eyes, but if you lean towards the anal, it will show up as 27 (ascii) or 92 (unicode) in a hex editor.
The following syntax will escape you ONLY ONE quotation mark:
SELECT ''''
The result will be a single quote. Might be very helpful for creating dynamic SQL :).
Double quotes option helped me
SET QUOTED_IDENTIFIER OFF;
insert into my_table values("hi, my name's tim.");
SET QUOTED_IDENTIFIER ON;
This should work
DECLARE #singleQuote CHAR
SET #singleQuote = CHAR(39)
insert into my_table values('hi, my name'+ #singleQuote +'s tim.')
Just insert a ' before anything to be inserted. It will be like a escape character in sqlServer
Example:
When you have a field as, I'm fine.
you can do:
UPDATE my_table SET row ='I''m fine.';
I had the same problem, but mine was not based of static data in the SQL code itself, but from values in the data.
This code lists all the columns names and data types in my database:
SELECT DISTINCT QUOTENAME(COLUMN_NAME),DATA_TYPE FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLUMNS
But some column names actually have a single-quote embedded in the name of the column!, such as ...
[MyTable].[LEOS'DATACOLUMN]
To process these, I had to use the REPLACE function along with the suggested QUOTED_IDENTIFIER setting. Otherwise it would be a syntax error, when the column is used in a dynamic SQL.
SET QUOTED_IDENTIFIER OFF;
SET #sql = 'SELECT DISTINCT ''' + #TableName + ''',''' + REPLACE(#ColumnName,"'","''") + ...etc
SET QUOTED_IDENTIFIER ON;
The STRING_ESCAPE funtion can be used on newer versions of SQL Server
This should work: use a back slash and put a double quote
"UPDATE my_table SET row =\"hi, my name's tim.\";
I have an XML path that exceeds 100 characters (and therefore truncates when the source is saved). My statement is something like this:
Exec SQL
Select Whatever
Into :Stuff
From Table as X,
XmlTable(
XmlNamespaces('http://namespace.url/' as "namespacevalue"),
'$X/really/long/path' Passing X.C1 as "X"
Columns
Field1 Char(3) Path 'example1',
Field2 Char(8) Path 'example2',
Field3 Char(32) Path '../example3'
) As R;
I must break $X/really/long/path across multiple lines. Per IBM's documentation,
The plus sign (+) can be used to indicate a continuation of a string constant.
However, this does not even pass precompile ("Token + was not valid"). I suspect this is due to where the string is in the statement.
I have also tried:
Putting the path in a host variable; this was not allowed
Using SQL CONCAT or ||; not allowed
Putting the path in a SQL global variable instead of a host variable; not allowed
I have considered:
Preparing the entire statement, but this is not ideal for a multitude of reasons
Truncating the path at a higher level in the hierarchy, but this does not return the desired "granularity" of records
Is there any way to span this specific literal in an XmlTable function across multiple lines in my source? Thanks for any and all ideas!
Something like
Exec SQL
Select Whatever
Into :Stuff
From Table as X,
XmlTable(
XmlNamespaces('http://namespace.url/' as "namespacevalue"),
'$X/really/+
long/path' Passing X.C1 as "X"
Columns
Field1 Char(3) Path 'example1',
Field2 Char(8) Path 'example2',
Field3 Char(32) Path '../example3'
) As R;
Should work, is that what you tried ?
The + didn't worked for me, so I had to shorten the path with // instead of /, which might by suboptimal .
I'm trying to clean out excessive trailing zeros, I used the following query...
UPDATE _table_ SET _column_=trim(trailing '00' FROM '_column_');
...and I received the following error:
ERROR: column "_column_" is of
expression is of type text.
I've played around with the quotes since that usually is what it barrels down to for text versus numeric though without any luck.
The CREATE TABLE syntax:
CREATE TABLE _table_ (
id bigint NOT NULL,
x bigint,
y bigint,
_column_ numeric
);
You can cast the arguments from and the result back to numeric:
UPDATE _table_ SET _column_=trim(trailing '00' FROM _column_::text)::numeric;
Also note that you don't quote column names with single quotes as you did.
Postgres version 13 now comes with the trim_scale() function:
UPDATE _table_ SET _column_ = trim_scale(_column_);
trim takes string parameters, so _column_ has to be cast to a string (varchar for example). Then, the result of trim has to be cast back to numeric.
UPDATE _table_ SET _column_=trim(trailing '00' FROM _column_::varchar)::numeric;
Another (arguably more consistent) way to clean out the trailing zeroes from a NUMERIC field would be to use something like the following:
UPDATE _table_ SET _column_ = CAST(to_char(_column_, 'FM999999999990.999999') AS NUMERIC);
Note that you would have to modify the FM pattern to match the maximum expected precision and scale of your _column_ field. For more details on the FM pattern modifier and/or the to_char(..) function see the PostgreSQL docs here and here.
Edit: Also, see the following post on the gnumed-devel mailing list for a longer and more thorough explanation on this approach.
Be careful with all the answers here. Although this looks like a simple problem, it's not.
If you have pg 13 or higher, you should use trim_scale (there is an answer about that already). If not, here is my "Polyfill":
DO $x$
BEGIN
IF count(*)=0 FROM pg_proc where proname='trim_scale' THEN
CREATE FUNCTION trim_scale(numeric) RETURNS numeric AS $$
SELECT CASE WHEN trim($1::text, '0')::numeric = $1 THEN trim($1::text, '0')::numeric ELSE $1 END $$
LANGUAGE SQL;
END IF;
END;
$x$;
And here is a query for testing the answers:
WITH test as (SELECT unnest(string_to_array('1|2.0|0030.00|4.123456000|300000','|'))::numeric _column_)
SELECT _column_ original,
trim(trailing '00' FROM _column_::text)::numeric accepted_answer,
CAST(to_char(_column_, 'FM999999999990.999') AS NUMERIC) another_fancy_one,
CASE WHEN trim(_column_::text, '0')::numeric = _column_ THEN trim(_column_::text, '0')::numeric ELSE _column_ END my FROM test;
Well... it looks like, I'm trying to show the flaws of the earlier answers, while just can't come up with other testcases. Maybe you should write more, if you can.
I'm like short syntax instead of fancy sql keywords, so I always go with :: over CAST and function call with comma separated args over constructs like trim(trailing '00' FROM _column_). But it's a personal taste only, you should check your company or team standards (and fight for change them XD)
In SSIS 2008 I have a variable called #[User::EANcode] It contains a string with a product eancode like '1234567891123'. The value is derived from a filename like'1234567891123.jpg' via a foreach loop.
However, sometimes the filenames contain an extra '_1', '_2' etc. at the end like '1234567891123_1.jpg' resulting in a value '1234567891123_1' in the EANcode variable.
This happens when there is more than one image for the same EANcode (product). The _N addition is always a number and it is always at the end of the name/string.
What is the expression to find/cath the '_1' (or_2 or_N etc) so you can store it in another variable called #[User::Addition]?
If there is no addition, the variable stays empty which is fine.
The reason I need to get this _N addition into a separate variable is that I later on need it to rename the filename but paste the addition back at the end.
Thanks!
I think you're looking for CHARINDEX() in conjunction with SUBSTRING(). With that, you can split off that _# to another variable like this (copy/pasta and execute to see. Play with the #temp1 variable to see the limitations of the code):
declare #temp1 varchar(20), #temp2 varchar(20)
set #temp1 = '1234567891123_12'
IF CHARINDEX('_', #temp1) > 1
set #temp2 = SUBSTRING(#temp1,CHARINDEX('_', #temp1),LEN(#temp1)-CHARINDEX('_',#temp1)+1)
select #temp1, #temp2
Hope it helps!
I've got a list 400 rows +. Each row looks similar to this: example-example123 I would like to remove everything past '-' so that I'm left with just the beginning part: example123
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
try it like this:
UPDATE table SET column_name=LEFT(column_name, INSTR(column_name, '-')-1)
WHERE INSTR(column_name, '-')>0;
If you only want to select you do it this way:
SELECT LEFT(column_name, INSTR(column_name, '-')-1) FROM table;
INSTR function gets you the position of your - then you update the column value to become from the first letter of the string till the position of the - -1
Here's a fiddle
You can use SQL Trim() function
SELECT TRIM(TRAILING '-' FROM BHEXLIVESQLVS1-LIVE61MSSQL)
AS TRAILING_TRIM
FROM table;
The result should be "BHEXLIVESQLVS1"
select SUBSTRING(col_name,0,Charindex ('-',col_name))
Assuming you need to do this in a query, you can use the string functions of your database.
For DB2 this would look something like
select SUBSTR(YOURCOLUMN, 1, LOCATE('-',YOURCOLUMN)) from YOURTABLE where ...
In SQL Server you could use
SUBSTRING
and
CHARINDEX
For SQL server you can do this,
LEFT(columnName, charindex('-', columnName)) to remove every character after '-'
to remove the special character as well do this,
LEFT(columnName, charindex('-', columnName)-1)
SELECT SUBSTRING(col_name,0,Charindex ('-',col_name)) FROM table_name
WHERE col_name='yourvalue'
Eg.
SELECT SUBSTRING(TPBS_Path,0,Charindex ('->',TPBS_Path)) FROM [CFG].[CFG_T_Project_Breakdown_Structure] WHERE TPBS_Parent_PBS_Code='LE180404'
here TPBS_Path is the column for which trim is to be done and [CFG].[CFG_T_Project_Breakdown_Structure] is table name and TPBS_Parent_PBS_Code='LE180404' is the select condition. Everything after '->' will be trimmed