I have a problem I can't seem to figure out. I am trying to extract capacity from a product description. It is always between two values, "," and "oz." however there could be other commas included in the description that are not part of what I'm trying to extract. Example value is , 15 oz., or , 2 oz.,
I'm trying to find values that have the oz in them and are between two commas and I have been completely unsuccessfully. I've tried many things, but here is the latest that I have tried today and I'm just getting an error.
SELECT SUBSTRING(
FullDescription,
CHARINDEX(',', FullDescription),
CHARINDEX('oz.',FullDescription)
- CHARINDEX(',', FullDescription)
+ Len('oz.')
)
from CatalogManagement.Product
Since the backwards pattern ,.zo is more recognisable, I'd go with the REVERSE function
Sample values:
"something, something more, 18oz., complete"
"shorter, 12oz., remainder"
"there is no capacity, in this, value"
"a bit more, 14oz, and some followups, maybe"
SELECT REVERSE(
SUBSTRING (
REVERSE(FullDescription),
CHARINDEX(',.zo', REVERSE(FullDescription)) + 1,
CHARINDEX(',', REVERSE(FullDescription), CHARINDEX(',.zo', REVERSE(FullDescription)) + 1) - CHARINDEX(',.zo', REVERSE(FullDescription)) - 1
)
)
FROM CatalogManagement.Product
WHERE FullDescription LIKE '%oz.,%'
You might use XML-splitting together with a XQuery predicate:
DECLARE #tbl TABLE(ID INT IDENTITY, YourString VARCHAR(MAX));
INSERT INTO #tbl VALUES('Here is one with an amount, 1 oz., some more text')
,('Here is one with no amount, some more text')
,('a, 10 oz.')
,('b, 20oz., no blank between oz and the number')
,('30oz., starts with the pattern, no leading comma');
SELECT t.*
,A.oz.value('.','nvarchar(max)') oz
FROM #tbl t
CROSS APPLY(SELECT CAST('<x>' + REPLACE((SELECT t.YourString AS [*] FOR XML PATH('')),',','</x><x>') + '</x>' AS XML)
.query('/x[contains(text()[1],"oz.")]')) A(oz);
The idea in short:
We use some string methods to replace commas with XML tags and to cast your string to XML. each fragment is placed within a decent <x> element.
We use a predicate to return just the fragments containing "oz.".
You can filter easily with
WHERE LEN(A.oz.value('.','nvarchar(max)'))>0
Im trying to convert a script from PLSQL to TSQL and am stuff with a couple of lines
table(cast(multiset(select level from dual connect by level <= len (regexp_replace(t.image, '[^**]+'))/2) as sys.OdciNumberList)) levels
where substr(REGEXP_SUBSTR (t.image, '[^**]+',1, levels.column_value),1,instr( REGEXP_SUBSTR (t.image, '[^**]+',1, levels.column_value),'=',1) -1)
IMAGE
Any help would be great.
Chris
For a better answer it would be good to include some sample input and desired results. Especially when addressing a different version of SQL. Perhaps including a PL/SQL tag would help find someone who understands PL/SQL and T-SQL. It would also be helpful to include DDL, specifically the datatype for "Level". Again, I say this not to be critical but rather guide you towards getting better answers here.
All That said, you can accomplish what you are trying to do in T-SQL leveraging a tally table, an N-Grams function and a couple other functions which I are included at the end of this post.
regexp_replace
To replace or remove characters that match a pattern in t-SQL you can use patreplace8k. Here's an example of how to use it to replace numbers with *'s:
SELECT pr.NewString
FROM samd.patReplace8K('My phone number is 555-2211','[0-9]','*') AS pr;
Returns: My phone number is -*
regexp_subsr
Here's an example of how to extract all phone numbers from a string:
DECLARE
#string VARCHAR(8000) = 'Call me later at 222-3333 or tomorrow at 312.555.2222,
(313)555-6789, or at 1+800-555-4444 before noon. Thanks!',
#pattern VARCHAR(50) = '%[^0-9()+.-]%';
-- EXTRACTOR
SELECT ItemNumber = ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDER BY f.position),
ItemIndex = f.position,
ItemLength = itemLen.l,
Item = SUBSTRING(f.token, 1, itemLen.l)
FROM
(
SELECT ng.position, SUBSTRING(#string,ng.position,DATALENGTH(#string))
FROM samd.NGrams8k(#string, 1) AS ng
WHERE PATINDEX(#pattern, ng.token) < --<< this token does NOT match the pattern
ABS(SIGN(ng.position-1)-1) + --<< are you the first row? OR
PATINDEX(#pattern,SUBSTRING(#string,ng.position-1,1)) --<< always 0 for 1st row
) AS f(position, token)
CROSS APPLY (VALUES(ISNULL(NULLIF(PATINDEX(#pattern,f.token),0), --CROSS APPLY (VALUES(ISNULL(NULLIF(PATINDEX('%'+#pattern+'%',f.token),0),
DATALENGTH(#string)+2-f.position)-1)) AS itemLen(l)
WHERE itemLen.L > 6 -- this filter is more harmful to the extractor than the splitter
ORDER BY ItemNumber;
T-SQL INSTR Function
I included a T-SQL version of Oracles INSTR function at the end of this post. Note these examples:
DECLARE
#string VARCHAR(8000) = 'AABBCC-AA123-AAXYZPDQ-AA-54321',
#search VARCHAR(8000) = '-AA',
#position INT = 1,
#occurance INT = 2;
-- 1.1. Get me the 2nd #occurance "-AA" in #string beginning at #position 1
SELECT f.* FROM samd.instr8k(#string,#search,#position,#occurance) AS f;
-- 1.2. Retreive everything *BEFORE* the second instance of "-AA"
SELECT
ItemIndex = f.ItemIndex,
Item = SUBSTRING(#string,1,f.itemindex-1)
FROM samd.instr8k(#string,#search,#position,#occurance) AS f;
-- 1.3. Retreive everything *AFTER* the second instance of "-AA"
SELECT
ItemIndex = MAX(f.ItemIndex),
Item = MAX(SUBSTRING(#string,f.itemindex+f.itemLength,8000))
FROM samd.instr8k(#string,#search,#position,#occurance) AS f;
regexp_replace (ADVANCED)
Here's a more complex example, leveraging ngrams8k to replace phone numbers with the text "REMOVED"
DECLARE
#string VARCHAR(8000) = 'Call me later at 222-3333 or tomorrow at 312.555.2222, (313)555-6789, or at 1+800-555-4444 before noon. Thanks!',
#pattern VARCHAR(50) = '%[0-9()+.-]%';
SELECT NewString = (
SELECT IIF(IsMatch=1 AND patSplit.item LIKE '%[0-9][0-9][0-9]%','<REMOVED>', patSplit.item)
FROM
(
SELECT 1, i.Idx, SUBSTRING(#string,1,i.Idx), CAST(0 AS BIT)
FROM (VALUES(PATINDEX(#pattern,#string)-1)) AS i(Idx) --FROM (VALUES(PATINDEX('%'+#pattern+'%',#string)-1)) AS i(Idx)
WHERE SUBSTRING(#string,1,1) NOT LIKE #pattern
UNION ALL
SELECT r.RN,
itemLength = LEAD(r.RN,1,DATALENGTH(#string)+1) OVER (ORDER BY r.RN)-r.RN,
item = SUBSTRING(#string,r.RN,
LEAD(r.RN,1,DATALENGTH(#string)+1) OVER (ORDER BY r.RN)-r.RN),
isMatch = ABS(t.p-2+1)
FROM core.rangeAB(1,DATALENGTH(#string),1,1) AS r
CROSS APPLY (VALUES (
CAST(PATINDEX(#pattern,SUBSTRING(#string,r.RN,1)) AS BIT),
CAST(PATINDEX(#pattern,SUBSTRING(#string,r.RN-1,1)) AS BIT),
SUBSTRING(#string,r.RN,r.Op+1))) AS t(c,p,s)
WHERE t.c^t.p = 1
) AS patSplit(ItemIndex, ItemLength, Item, IsMatch)
FOR XML PATH(''), TYPE).value('.','varchar(8000)');
Returns:
Call me later at or tomorrow at , , or at before noon. Thanks!
CREATE FUNCTION core.rangeAB
(
#Low BIGINT, -- (start) Lowest number in the set
#High BIGINT, -- (stop) Highest number in the set
#Gap BIGINT, -- (step) Difference between each number in the set
#Row1 BIT -- Base: 0 or 1; should RN begin with 0 or 1?
)
/****************************************************************************************
[Purpose]:
Creates a lazy, in-memory, forward-ordered sequence of up to 531,441,000,000 integers
starting with #Low and ending with #High (inclusive). RangeAB is a pure, 100% set-based
alternative to solving SQL problems using iterative methods such as loops, cursors and
recursive CTEs. RangeAB is based on Itzik Ben-Gan's getnums function for producing a
sequence of integers and uses logic from Jeff Moden's fnTally function which includes a
parameter for determining if the "row-number" (RN) should begin with 0 or 1.
I wanted to use the name "Range" because it functions and performs almost identically to
the Range function built into Python and Clojure. RANGE is a reserved SQL keyword so I
went with "RangeAB". Functions/Algorithms developed using rangeAB can be easilty ported
over to Python, Clojure or any other programming language that leverages a lazy sequence.
The two major differences between RangeAB and the Python/Clojure versions are:
1. RangeAB is *Inclusive* where the other two are *Exclusive". range(0,3) in Python and
Clojure return [0 1 2], core.rangeAB(0,3) returns [0 1 2 3].
2. RangeAB has a fourth Parameter (#Row1) to determine if RN should begin with 0 or 1.
[Author]:
Alan Burstein
[Compatibility]:
SQL Server 2008+
[Syntax]:
SELECT r.RN, r.OP, r.N1, r.N2
FROM core.rangeAB(#Low,#High,#Gap,#Row1) AS r;
[Parameters]:
#Low = BIGINT; represents the lowest value for N1.
#High = BIGINT; represents the highest value for N1.
#Gap = BIGINT; represents how much N1 and N2 will increase each row. #Gap is also the
difference between N1 and N2.
#Row1 = BIT; represents the base (first) value of RN. When #Row1 = 0, RN begins with 0,
when #row = 1 then RN begins with 1.
[Returns]:
Inline Table Valued Function returns:
RN = BIGINT; a row number that works just like T-SQL ROW_NUMBER() except that it can
start at 0 or 1 which is dictated by #Row1. If you need the numbers:
(0 or 1) through #High, then use RN as your "N" value, ((#Row1=0 for 0, #Row1=1),
otherwise use N1.
OP = BIGINT; returns the "finite opposite" of RN. When RN begins with 0 the first number
in the set will be 0 for RN, the last number in will be 0 for OP. When returning the
numbers 1 to 10, 1 to 10 is retrurned in ascending order for RN and in descending
order for OP.
Given the Numbers 1 to 3, 3 is the opposite of 1, 2 the opposite of 2, and 1 is the
opposite of 3. Given the numbers -1 to 2, the opposite of -1 is 2, the opposite of 0
is 1, and the opposite of 1 is 0.
The best practie is to only use OP when #Gap > 1; use core.O instead. Doing so will
improve performance by 1-2% (not huge but every little bit counts)
N1 = BIGINT; This is the "N" in your tally table/numbers function. this is your *Lazy*
sequence of numbers starting at #Low and incrementing by #Gap until the next number
in the sequence is greater than #High.
N2 = BIGINT; a lazy sequence of numbers starting #Low+#Gap and incrementing by #Gap. N2
will always be greater than N1 by #Gap. N2 can also be thought of as:
LEAD(N1,1,N1+#Gap) OVER (ORDER BY RN)
[Dependencies]:
N/A
[Developer Notes]:
1. core.rangeAB returns one billion rows in exactly 90 seconds on my laptop:
4X 2.7GHz CPU's, 32 GB - multiple versions of SQL Server (2005-2019)
2. The lowest and highest possible numbers returned are whatever is allowable by a
bigint. The function, however, returns no more than 531,441,000,000 rows (8100^3).
3. #Gap does not affect RN, RN will begin at #Row1 and increase by 1 until the last row
unless its used in a subquery where a filter is applied to RN.
4. #Gap must be greater than 0 or the function will not return any rows.
5. Keep in mind that when #Row1 is 0 then the highest RN value (ROWNUMBER) will be the
number of rows returned minus 1
6. If you only need is a sequential set beginning at 0 or 1 then, for best performance
use the RN column. Use N1 and/or N2 when you need to begin your sequence at any
number other than 0 or 1 or if you need a gap between your sequence of numbers.
7. Although #Gap is a bigint it must be a positive integer or the function will
not return any rows.
8. The function will not return any rows when one of the following conditions are true:
* any of the input parameters are NULL
* #High is less than #Low
* #Gap is not greater than 0
To force the function to return all NULLs instead of not returning anything you can
add the following code to the end of the query:
UNION ALL
SELECT NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL
WHERE NOT (#High&#Low&#Gap&#Row1 IS NOT NULL AND #High >= #Low AND #Gap > 0)
This code was excluded as it adds a ~5% performance penalty.
9. There is no performance penalty for sorting by RN ASC; there is a large performance
penalty, however for sorting in descending order. If you need a descending sort the
use OP in place of RN then sort by rn ASC.
10. When setting the #Row1 to 0 and sorting by RN you will see that the 0 is added via
MERGE JOIN concatination. Under the hood the function is essentially concatinating
but, because it's using a MERGE JOIN operator instead of concatination the cost
estimations are needlessly high. You can circumvent this problem by changing:
ORDER BY core.rangeAB.RN to: ORDER BY ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDER BY (SELECT NULL))
[Examples]:
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Revision History]:
Rev 00 - 20140518 - Initial Development - AJB
Rev 05 - 20191122 - Developed this "core" version for open source distribution;
updated notes and did some final code clean-up
*****************************************************************************************/
RETURNS TABLE WITH SCHEMABINDING AS RETURN
WITH
L1(N) AS
(
SELECT 1
FROM (VALUES
($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),
($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),
($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),
($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),
($),($)) T(N) -- 90 values
),
L2(N) AS (SELECT 1 FROM L1 a CROSS JOIN L1 b CROSS JOIN L1 c),
iTally(RN) AS (SELECT ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDER BY (SELECT 1)) FROM L2 a CROSS JOIN L2 b)
SELECT r.RN, r.OP, r.N1, r.N2
FROM
(
SELECT
RN = 0,
OP = (#High-#Low)/#Gap,
N1 = #Low,
N2 = #Gap+#Low
WHERE #Row1 = 0
UNION ALL -- (#High-#Low)/#Gap+1:
SELECT TOP (ABS((ISNULL(#High,0)-ISNULL(#Low,0))/ISNULL(#Gap,0)+ISNULL(#Row1,1)))
RN = i.RN,
OP = (#High-#Low)/#Gap+(2*#Row1)-i.RN,
N1 = (i.rn-#Row1)*#Gap+#Low,
N2 = (i.rn-(#Row1-1))*#Gap+#Low
FROM iTally AS i
ORDER BY i.RN
) AS r
WHERE #High&#Low&#Gap&#Row1 IS NOT NULL AND #High >= #Low
AND #Gap > 0;
GO
CREATE FUNCTION samd.ngrams8k
(
#String VARCHAR(8000), -- Input string
#N INT -- requested token size
)
/*****************************************************************************************
[Purpose]:
A character-level N-Grams function that outputs a contiguous stream of #N-sized tokens
based on an input string (#String). Accepts strings up to 8000 varchar characters long.
For more information about N-Grams see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N-gram.
[Author]:
Alan Burstein
[Compatibility]:
SQL Server 2008+, Azure SQL Database
[Syntax]:
--===== Autonomous
SELECT ng.Position, ng.Token
FROM samd.ngrams8k(#String,#N) AS ng;
--===== Against a table using APPLY
SELECT s.SomeID, ng.Position, ng.Token
FROM dbo.SomeTable AS s
CROSS APPLY samd.ngrams8k(s.SomeValue,#N) AS ng;
[Parameters]:
#String = The input string to split into tokens.
#N = The size of each token returned.
[Returns]:
Position = BIGINT; the position of the token in the input string
token = VARCHAR(8000); a #N-sized character-level N-Gram token
[Dependencies]:
1. core.rangeAB (iTVF)
[Developer Notes]:
1. ngrams8k is not case sensitive;
2. Many functions that use ngrams8k will see a huge performance gain when the optimizer
creates a parallel execution plan. One way to get a parallel query plan (if the
optimizer does not choose one) is to use make_parallel by Adam Machanic which can be
found here:
sqlblog.com/blogs/adam_machanic/archive/2013/07/11/next-level-parallel-plan-porcing.aspx
3. When #N is less than 1 or greater than the datalength of the input string then no
tokens (rows) are returned. If either #String or #N are NULL no rows are returned.
This is a debatable topic but the thinking behind this decision is that: because you
can't split 'xxx' into 4-grams, you can't split a NULL value into unigrams and you
can't turn anything into NULL-grams, no rows should be returned.
For people who would prefer that a NULL input forces the function to return a single
NULL output you could add this code to the end of the function:
UNION ALL
SELECT 1, NULL
WHERE NOT(#N > 0 AND #N <= DATALENGTH(#String)) OR (#N IS NULL OR #String IS NULL)
4. ngrams8k is deterministic. For more about deterministic functions see:
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms178091.aspx
[Examples]:
--===== 1. Split the string, "abcd" into unigrams, bigrams and trigrams
SELECT ng.Position, ng.Token FROM samd.ngrams8k('abcd',1) AS ng; -- unigrams (#N=1)
SELECT ng.Position, ng.Token FROM samd.ngrams8k('abcd',2) AS ng; -- bigrams (#N=2)
SELECT ng.Position, ng.Token FROM samd.ngrams8k('abcd',3) AS ng; -- trigrams (#N=3)
[Revision History]:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Rev 00 - 20140310 - Initial Development - Alan Burstein
Rev 01 - 20150522 - Removed DQS N-Grams functionality, improved iTally logic. Also Added
conversion to bigint in the TOP logic to remove implicit conversion
to bigint - Alan Burstein
Rev 05 - 20171228 - Small simplification; changed:
(ABS(CONVERT(BIGINT,(DATALENGTH(ISNULL(#String,''))-(ISNULL(#N,1)-1)),0)))
to:
(ABS(CONVERT(BIGINT,(DATALENGTH(ISNULL(#String,''))+1-ISNULL(#N,1)),0)))
Rev 06 - 20180612 - Using CHECKSUM(N) in the to convert N in the token output instead of
using (CAST N as int). CHECKSUM removes the need to convert to int.
Rev 07 - 20180612 - re-designed to: Use core.rangeAB - Alan Burstein
*****************************************************************************************/
RETURNS TABLE WITH SCHEMABINDING AS RETURN
SELECT
Position = r.RN,
Token = SUBSTRING(#String,CHECKSUM(r.RN),#N)
FROM core.rangeAB(1,LEN(#String)+1-#N,1,1) AS r
WHERE #N > 0 AND #N <= LEN(#String);
GO
CREATE FUNCTION samd.patReplace8K
(
#string VARCHAR(8000),
#pattern VARCHAR(50),
#replace VARCHAR(20)
)
/*****************************************************************************************
[Purpose]:
Given a string (#string), a pattern (#pattern), and a replacement character (#replace)
patReplace8K will replace any character in #string that matches the #Pattern parameter
with the character, #replace.
[Author]:
Alan Burstein
[Compatibility]:
SQL Server 2008+
[Syntax]:
--===== Basic Syntax Example
SELECT pr.NewString
FROM samd.patReplace8K(#String,#Pattern,#Replace) AS pr;
[Developer Notes]:
1. Required SQL Server 2008+
2. #Pattern IS case sensitive but can be easily modified to make it case insensitive
3. There is no need to include the "%" before and/or after your pattern since since we
are evaluating each character individually
4. Certain special characters, such as "$" and "%" need to be escaped with a "/"
like so: [/$/%]
[Examples]:
--===== 1. Replace numeric characters with a "*"
SELECT pr.NewString
FROM samd.patReplace8K('My phone number is 555-2211','[0-9]','*') AS pr;
[Revision History]:
Rev 00 - 10/27/2014 Initial Development - Alan Burstein
Rev 01 - 10/29/2014 Mar 2007 - Alan Burstein
- Redesigned based on the dbo.STRIP_NUM_EE by Eirikur Eiriksson
(see: http://www.sqlservercentral.com/Forums/Topic1585850-391-2.aspx)
- change how the cte tally table is created
- put the include/exclude logic in a CASE statement instead of a WHERE clause
- Added Latin1_General_BIN Colation
- Add code to use the pattern as a parameter.
Rev 02 - 20141106
- Added final performane enhancement (more cudo's to Eirikur Eiriksson)
- Put 0 = PATINDEX filter logic into the WHERE clause
Rev 03 - 20150516
- Updated to deal with special XML characters
Rev 04 - 20170320
- changed #replace from char(1) to varchar(1) to address how spaces are handled
Rev 05 - Re-write using samd.NGrams
*****************************************************************************************/
RETURNS TABLE WITH SCHEMABINDING AS RETURN
SELECT newString =
(
SELECT CASE WHEN #string = CAST('' AS VARCHAR(8000)) THEN CAST('' AS VARCHAR(8000))
WHEN #pattern+#replace+#string IS NOT NULL THEN
CASE WHEN PATINDEX(#pattern,token COLLATE Latin1_General_BIN)=0
THEN ng.token ELSE #replace END END
FROM samd.NGrams8K(#string, 1) AS ng
ORDER BY ng.position
FOR XML PATH(''),TYPE
).value('text()[1]', 'VARCHAR(8000)');
GO
CREATE FUNCTION samd.Instr8k
(
#string VARCHAR(8000),
#search VARCHAR(8000),
#position INT,
#occurance INT
)
/*****************************************************************************************
[Purpose]:
Returns the position (ItemIndex) of the Nth(#occurance) occurrence of one string(#search) within
another(#string). Similar to Oracle's PL/SQL INSTR funtion.
https://www.techonthenet.com/oracle/functions/instr.php
[Author]:
Alan Burstein
[Compatibility]:
SQL Server 2008+
[Syntax]:
--===== Autonomous
SELECT ins.ItemIndex, ins.ItemLength, ins.ItemCount
FROM samd.Instr8k(#string,#search,#position,#occurance) AS ins;
--===== Against a table using APPLY
SELECT s.SomeID, ins.ItemIndex, ins.ItemLength, ins.ItemCount
FROM dbo.SomeTable AS s
CROSS APPLY samd.Instr8k(s.string,#search,#position,#occurance) AS ins
[Parameters]:
#string = VARCHAR(8000); Input sting to evaluate
#search = VARCHAR(8000); Token to search for inside of #string
#position = INT; Where to begin searching for #search; identical to the third
parameter in SQL Server CHARINDEX [, start_location]
#occurance = INT; Represents the Nth instance of the search string (#search)
[Returns]:
ItemIndex = Position of the Nth (#occurance) instance of #search inside #string
ItemLength = Length of #search (in case you need it, no need to re-evaluate the string)
ItemCount = Number of times #search appears inside #string
[Dependencies]:
1. samd.ngrams8k
1.1. dbo.rangeAB (iTVF)
2. samd.substringCount8K_lazy
[Developer Notes]:
1. samd.Instr8k does not treat the input strings (#string and #search) as case sensitive.
2. Don't use instr8k for "SubstringBetween" functionality; for better performance use
samd.SubstringBetween8k instead.
3. The #position parameter is the key benefit of this function when dealing with long
strings where the search item is towards the back of the string. For example, take a
5000 character string where, what you are looking for is always *at least* 3000
characters deep. Setting #position to 3000 will dramatically improve performance.
4. Unlike Oracle's PL/SQL INSTR function, Instr8k does not accept numbers less than 1.
[Examples]:
[Revision History]:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Rev 00 - 20191112 - Initial Development - Alan Burstein
*****************************************************************************************/
RETURNS TABLE WITH SCHEMABINDING AS RETURN
SELECT
ItemIndex = ISNULL(MAX(ISNULL(instr.Position,1)+(a.Pos-1)),0),
ItemLength = ISNULL(MAX(LEN(#search)),LEN(#search)),
ItemCount = ISNULL(MAX(items.SubstringCount),0)
FROM (VALUES(ISNULL(#position,1),LEN(#search))) AS a(Pos,SrchLn)
CROSS APPLY (VALUES(SUBSTRING(#string,a.Pos,8000))) AS f(String)
CROSS APPLY samd.substringCount8K_lazy(f.string,#search) AS items
CROSS APPLY
(
SELECT TOP (#occurance) RN = ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDER BY ng.position), ng.position
FROM samd.ngrams8k(f.string,a.SrchLn) AS ng
WHERE ng.token = #search
ORDER BY RN
) AS instr
WHERE a.Pos > 0
AND #occurance <= items.SubstringCount
AND instr.RN = #occurance;
GO
CREATE FUNCTION samd.substringCount8K_lazy
(
#string varchar(8000),
#searchstring varchar(1000)
)
/*****************************************************************************************
[Purpose]:
Scans the input string (#string) and counts how many times the search character
(#searchChar) appears. This function is Based on Itzik Ben-Gans cte numbers table logic
[Compatibility]:
SQL Server 2008+
Uses TABLE VALUES constructor (not available pre-2008)
[Author]: Alan Burstein
[Syntax]:
--===== Autonomous
SELECT f.substringCount
FROM samd.substringCount8K_lazy(#string,#searchString) AS f;
--===== Against a table using APPLY
SELECT f.substringCount
FROM dbo.someTable AS t
CROSS APPLY samd.substringCount8K_lazy(t.col, #searchString) AS f;
Parameters:
#string = VARCHAR(8000); input string to analyze
#searchString = VARCHAR(1000); substring to search for
[Returns]:
Inline table valued function returns -
substringCount = int; Number of times that #searchChar appears in #string
[Developer Notes]:
1. substringCount8K_lazy does NOT take overlapping values into consideration. For
example, this query will return a 1 but the correct result is 2:
SELECT substringCount FROM samd.substringCount8K_lazy('xxx','xx')
When overlapping values are a possibility or concern then use substringCountAdvanced8k
2. substringCount8K_lazy is what is referred to as an "inline" scalar UDF." Technically
it's aninline table valued function (iTVF) but performs the same task as a scalar
valued user defined function (UDF); the difference is that it requires the APPLY table
operator to accept column values as a parameter. For more about "inline" scalar UDFs
see thisarticle by SQL MVP Jeff Moden:
http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/T-SQL/91724/
and for more about how to use APPLY see the this article by SQL MVP Paul White:
http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/APPLY/69953/.
Note the above syntax example and usage examples below to better understand how to
use the function. Although the function is slightly more complicated to use than a
scalar UDF it will yield notably better performance for many reasons. For example,
unlike a scalar UDFs or multi-line table valued functions, the inline scalar UDF does
not restrict the query optimizer's ability generate a parallel query execution plan.
3. substringCount8K_lazy returns NULL when either input parameter is NULL and returns 0
when either input parameter is blank.
4. substringCount8K_lazy does not treat parameters as cases senstitive
5. substringCount8K_lazy is deterministic. For more deterministic functions see:
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms178091.aspx
[Examples]:
--===== 1. How many times does the substring "abc" appear?
SELECT f.* FROM samd.substringCount8k_lazy('abc123xxxabc','abc') AS f;
--===== 2. Return records from a table where the substring "ab" appears more than once
DECLARE #table TABLE (string varchar(8000));
DECLARE #searchString varchar(1000) = 'ab';
INSERT #table VALUES ('abcabc'),('abcd'),('bababab'),('baba'),(NULL);
SELECT searchString = #searchString, t.string, f.substringCount
FROM #table AS t
CROSS APPLY samd.substringCount8k_lazy(string,'ab') AS f
WHERE f.substringCount > 1;
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Revision History]:
Rev 00 - 20180625 - Initial Development - Alan Burstein
Rev 01 - 20190102 - Added logic to better handle #searchstring = char(32) - Alan Burstein
*****************************************************************************************/
RETURNS TABLE WITH SCHEMABINDING AS RETURN
SELECT substringCount = (LEN(v.s)-LEN(REPLACE(v.s,v.st,'')))/d.l
FROM (VALUES(DATALENGTH(#searchstring))) AS d(l)
CROSS APPLY (VALUES(#string,CASE WHEN d.l>0 THEN #searchstring END)) AS v(s,st);
GO
What's the best way to extract the first word of a string in sql server query?
SELECT CASE CHARINDEX(' ', #Foo, 1)
WHEN 0 THEN #Foo -- empty or single word
ELSE SUBSTRING(#Foo, 1, CHARINDEX(' ', #Foo, 1) - 1) -- multi-word
END
You could perhaps use this in a UDF:
CREATE FUNCTION [dbo].[FirstWord] (#value varchar(max))
RETURNS varchar(max)
AS
BEGIN
RETURN CASE CHARINDEX(' ', #value, 1)
WHEN 0 THEN #value
ELSE SUBSTRING(#value, 1, CHARINDEX(' ', #value, 1) - 1) END
END
GO -- test:
SELECT dbo.FirstWord(NULL)
SELECT dbo.FirstWord('')
SELECT dbo.FirstWord('abc')
SELECT dbo.FirstWord('abc def')
SELECT dbo.FirstWord('abc def ghi')
I wanted to do something like this without making a separate function, and came up with this simple one-line approach:
DECLARE #test NVARCHAR(255)
SET #test = 'First Second'
SELECT SUBSTRING(#test,1,(CHARINDEX(' ',#test + ' ')-1))
This would return the result "First"
It's short, just not as robust, as it assumes your string doesn't start with a space. It will handle one-word inputs, multi-word inputs, and empty string inputs.
Enhancement of Ben Brandt's answer to compensate even if the string starts with space by applying LTRIM(). Tried to edit his answer but rejected, so I am now posting it here separately.
DECLARE #test NVARCHAR(255)
SET #test = 'First Second'
SELECT SUBSTRING(LTRIM(#test),1,(CHARINDEX(' ',LTRIM(#test) + ' ')-1))
Adding the following before the RETURN statement would solve for the cases where a leading space was included in the field:
SET #Value = LTRIM(RTRIM(#Value))
Marc's answer got me most of the way to what I needed, but I had to go with patIndex rather than charIndex because sometimes characters other than spaces mark the ends of my data's words. Here I'm using '%[ /-]%' to look for space, slash, or dash.
Select race_id, race_description
, Case patIndex ('%[ /-]%', LTrim (race_description))
When 0 Then LTrim (race_description)
Else substring (LTrim (race_description), 1, patIndex ('%[ /-]%', LTrim (race_description)) - 1)
End race_abbreviation
from tbl_races
Results...
race_id race_description race_abbreviation
------- ------------------------- -----------------
1 White White
2 Black or African American Black
3 Hispanic/Latino Hispanic
Caveat: this is for a small data set (US federal race reporting categories); I don't know what would happen to performance when scaled up to huge numbers.
DECLARE #string NVARCHAR(50)
SET #string = 'CUT STRING'
SELECT LEFT(#string,(PATINDEX('% %',#string)))
Extract the first word from the indicated field:
SELECT SUBSTRING(field1, 1, CHARINDEX(' ', field1)) FROM table1;
Extract the second and successive words from the indicated field:
SELECT SUBSTRING(field1, CHARINDEX(' ', field1)+1, LEN (field1)-CHARINDEX(' ', field1)) FROM table1;
A slight tweak to the function returns the next word from a start point in the entry
CREATE FUNCTION [dbo].[GetWord]
(
#value varchar(max)
, #startLocation int
)
RETURNS varchar(max)
AS
BEGIN
SET #value = LTRIM(RTRIM(#Value))
SELECT #startLocation =
CASE
WHEN #startLocation > Len(#value) THEN LEN(#value)
ELSE #startLocation
END
SELECT #value =
CASE
WHEN #startLocation > 1
THEN LTRIM(RTRIM(RIGHT(#value, LEN(#value) - #startLocation)))
ELSE #value
END
RETURN CASE CHARINDEX(' ', #value, 1)
WHEN 0 THEN #value
ELSE SUBSTRING(#value, 1, CHARINDEX(' ', #value, 1) - 1)
END
END
GO
SELECT dbo.GetWord(NULL, 1)
SELECT dbo.GetWord('', 1)
SELECT dbo.GetWord('abc', 1)
SELECT dbo.GetWord('abc def', 4)
SELECT dbo.GetWord('abc def ghi', 20)
Try This:
Select race_id, race_description
, Case patIndex ('%[ /-]%', LTrim (race_description))
When 0 Then LTrim (race_description)
Else substring (LTrim (race_description), 1, patIndex ('%[ /-]%', LTrim (race_description)) - 1)
End race_abbreviation
from tbl_races