Splitting A String into Multiple Values in SQL Server 2000 - sql-server

I'm asking the question on behalf of someone that works for my client that asked me this. I'm actually more familiar with mySQL than SQL Server, but unfortunately, SQL Server is what the client has used for years.
The question basically this: Is there a way in SQL Server to split a string into multiple values (e.g. array?) that can be used in a WHERE statement.
Here's a PHP example of what I'm talking about.
<?php
$string = "10,11,12,13";
$explode = explode(",", $string);
?>
$explode would be equal to array(10,11,12,13). What I need to do is something like this:
SELECT {long field list] FROM {tables} WHERE hour IN SPLIT(",", "10,11,12,13")
With SPLIT being my pseudo-code function that performs the splitting
The reason why I'm not doing this in, let's say, PHP, is because the query is being constructed by reporting software where we can't perform logic (such as my PHP code) before sending it to the database, and the multiple values are being returned by the software as a single string separated by pipes (|).
Unfortunately I do not have access to the reporting software (I think he said it was called Logi or LogiReports or something) or the query my associate was drafting up, but all that is really important for this question is the WHERE clause.
Any ideas?

Dynamic SQL can be used:
declare #in varchar(10)
set #in = '10,11,12,13'
exec ('SELECT {long field list] FROM {tables} WHERE hour IN (' + #in + ')')

Several methods here: Arrays and list in SQL Server
For short strings, I prefer a numbers table
I could copy/paste from here but it really is worth reading

You could use a Function which receives a string containing the "id's" separated by pipes, and return it as a table, which you can query and use in a subquery maybe, like this:
SELECT {long field list] FROM {tables} WHERE hour IN
(SELECT OrderID from dbo.SplitOrderIDs('2001,2002'))
ALTER FUNCTION [dbo].[SplitOrderIDs]
(
#OrderList varchar(500)
)
RETURNS
#ParsedList table
(
OrderID int
)
AS
BEGIN
DECLARE #OrderID varchar(10), #Pos int
SET #OrderList = LTRIM(RTRIM(#OrderList))+ ','
SET #Pos = CHARINDEX(',', #OrderList, 1)
IF REPLACE(#OrderList, ',', '') <> ''
BEGIN
WHILE #Pos > 0
BEGIN
SET #OrderID = LTRIM(RTRIM(LEFT(#OrderList, #Pos - 1)))
IF #OrderID <> ''
BEGIN
INSERT INTO #ParsedList (OrderID)
VALUES (CAST(#OrderID AS int)) --Use Appropriate conversion
END
SET #OrderList = RIGHT(#OrderList, LEN(#OrderList) - #Pos)
SET #Pos = CHARINDEX(',', #OrderList, 1)
END
END
RETURN
END

you can use this stored procedure.
I hope that be useful for you.
CREATE PROCEDURE SP_STRING_SPLIT (#String varchar(8000),#Separator Char(10),#pos_select int=0)
AS
BEGIN
SET NOCOUNT ON
DECLARE #Caracter varchar(8000)
DECLARE #Pos int
Set #Pos=1
Set #Caracter=''
CREATE TABLE #ARRAY
( String varchar(8000) NOT NULL,
Pos int NOT NULL IDENTITY (1, 1)
)
While (#Pos<=len(#String))
Begin
If substring(#String,#Pos,1)=Ltrim(Rtrim(#Separator))
Begin
INSERT INTO #ARRAY SELECT #Caracter
SET #Caracter=''
End
Else
Begin
--forma la palabra}
Set #Caracter=#Caracter+substring(#String,#Pos,1)
End
If #Pos=len(#String)
Begin
INSERT INTO #ARRAY SELECT #Caracter
End
SET #Pos=#Pos+1
End
SELECT Pos,String FROM #ARRAY where (Pos=#pos_select Or #pos_select=0)
END
GO
exec SP_STRING_SPLIT 'HELLO, HOW ARE YOU?',',',0

Related

Using Wildcards in SQL to delete part of a string [duplicate]

SELECT REPLACE('<strong>100</strong><b>.00 GB', '%^(^-?\d*\.{0,1}\d+$)%', '');
I want to replace any markup between two parts of the number with above regex, but it does not seem to work. I'm not sure if it is regex syntax that's wrong because I tried simpler one such as '%[^0-9]%' just to test but it didn't work either. Does anyone know how can I achieve this?
You can use PATINDEX
to find the first index of the pattern (string's) occurrence. Then use STUFF to stuff another string into the pattern(string) matched.
Loop through each row. Replace each illegal characters with what you want. In your case replace non numeric with blank. The inner loop is if you have more than one illegal character in a current cell that of the loop.
DECLARE #counter int
SET #counter = 0
WHILE(#counter < (SELECT MAX(ID_COLUMN) FROM Table))
BEGIN
WHILE 1 = 1
BEGIN
DECLARE #RetVal varchar(50)
SET #RetVal = (SELECT Column = STUFF(Column, PATINDEX('%[^0-9.]%', Column),1, '')
FROM Table
WHERE ID_COLUMN = #counter)
IF(#RetVal IS NOT NULL)
UPDATE Table SET
Column = #RetVal
WHERE ID_COLUMN = #counter
ELSE
break
END
SET #counter = #counter + 1
END
Caution: This is slow though! Having a varchar column may impact. So using LTRIM RTRIM may help a bit. Regardless, it is slow.
Credit goes to this StackOverFlow answer.
EDIT
Credit also goes to #srutzky
Edit (by #Tmdean)
Instead of doing one row at a time, this answer can be adapted to a more set-based solution. It still iterates the max of the number of non-numeric characters in a single row, so it's not ideal, but I think it should be acceptable in most situations.
WHILE 1 = 1 BEGIN
WITH q AS
(SELECT ID_Column, PATINDEX('%[^0-9.]%', Column) AS n
FROM Table)
UPDATE Table
SET Column = STUFF(Column, q.n, 1, '')
FROM q
WHERE Table.ID_Column = q.ID_Column AND q.n != 0;
IF ##ROWCOUNT = 0 BREAK;
END;
You can also improve efficiency quite a lot if you maintain a bit column in the table that indicates whether the field has been scrubbed yet. (NULL represents "Unknown" in my example and should be the column default.)
DECLARE #done bit = 0;
WHILE #done = 0 BEGIN
WITH q AS
(SELECT ID_Column, PATINDEX('%[^0-9.]%', Column) AS n
FROM Table
WHERE COALESCE(Scrubbed_Column, 0) = 0)
UPDATE Table
SET Column = STUFF(Column, q.n, 1, ''),
Scrubbed_Column = 0
FROM q
WHERE Table.ID_Column = q.ID_Column AND q.n != 0;
IF ##ROWCOUNT = 0 SET #done = 1;
-- if Scrubbed_Column is still NULL, then the PATINDEX
-- must have given 0
UPDATE table
SET Scrubbed_Column = CASE
WHEN Scrubbed_Column IS NULL THEN 1
ELSE NULLIF(Scrubbed_Column, 0)
END;
END;
If you don't want to change your schema, this is easy to adapt to store intermediate results in a table valued variable which gets applied to the actual table at the end.
Instead of stripping out the found character by its sole position, using Replace(Column, BadFoundCharacter, '') could be substantially faster. Additionally, instead of just replacing the one bad character found next in each column, this replaces all those found.
WHILE 1 = 1 BEGIN
UPDATE dbo.YourTable
SET Column = Replace(Column, Substring(Column, PatIndex('%[^0-9.-]%', Column), 1), '')
WHERE Column LIKE '%[^0-9.-]%'
If ##RowCount = 0 BREAK;
END;
I am convinced this will work better than the accepted answer, if only because it does fewer operations. There are other ways that might also be faster, but I don't have time to explore those right now.
In a general sense, SQL Server does not support regular expressions and you cannot use them in the native T-SQL code.
You could write a CLR function to do that. See here, for example.
For those looking for a performant and easy solution and are willing to enable CLR:
CREATE database TestSQLFunctions
go
use TestSQLFunctions
go
ALTER database TestSQLFunctions set trustworthy on
EXEC sp_configure 'clr enabled', 1
RECONFIGURE WITH OVERRIDE
go
CREATE ASSEMBLY [SQLFunctions]
AUTHORIZATION [dbo]
FROM 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
WITH PERMISSION_SET = SAFE
go
CREATE FUNCTION RegexReplace(
#input nvarchar(max),
#pattern nvarchar(max),
#replacement nvarchar(max)
) RETURNS nvarchar (max)
AS EXTERNAL NAME SQLFunctions.[SQLFunctions.Regex].Replace;
go
-- outputs This is a test
SELECT dbo.RegexReplace('This is a test 12345','[0-9]','')
Content of the DLL:
I stumbled across this post looking for something else but thought I'd mention a solution I use which is far more efficient - and really should be the default implementation of any function when used with a set based query - which is to use a cross applied table function. Seems the topic is still active so hopefully this is useful to someone.
Example runtime on a few of the answers so far based on running recursive set based queries or scalar function, based on 1m rows test set removing the chars from a random newid, ranges from 34s to 2m05s for the WHILE loop examples and from 1m3s to {forever} for the function examples.
Using a table function with cross apply achieves the same goal in 10s. You may need to adjust it to suit your needs such as the max length it handles.
Function:
CREATE FUNCTION [dbo].[RemoveChars](#InputUnit VARCHAR(40))
RETURNS TABLE
AS
RETURN
(
WITH Numbers_prep(Number) AS
(
SELECT 1 UNION ALL SELECT 1 UNION ALL SELECT 1 UNION ALL SELECT 1 UNION ALL SELECT 1 UNION ALL SELECT 1 UNION ALL SELECT 1
)
,Numbers(Number) AS
(
SELECT TOP (ISNULL(LEN(#InputUnit),0))
row_number() OVER (ORDER BY (SELECT NULL))
FROM Numbers_prep a
CROSS JOIN Numbers_prep b
)
SELECT
OutputUnit
FROM
(
SELECT
substring(#InputUnit,Number,1)
FROM Numbers
WHERE substring(#InputUnit,Number,1) like '%[0-9]%'
ORDER BY Number
FOR XML PATH('')
) Sub(OutputUnit)
)
Usage:
UPDATE t
SET column = o.OutputUnit
FROM ##t t
CROSS APPLY [dbo].[RemoveChars](t.column) o
Here is a function I wrote to accomplish this based off of the previous answers.
CREATE FUNCTION dbo.RepetitiveReplace
(
#P_String VARCHAR(MAX),
#P_Pattern VARCHAR(MAX),
#P_ReplaceString VARCHAR(MAX),
#P_ReplaceLength INT = 1
)
RETURNS VARCHAR(MAX)
BEGIN
DECLARE #Index INT;
-- Get starting point of pattern
SET #Index = PATINDEX(#P_Pattern, #P_String);
while #Index > 0
begin
--replace matching charactger at index
SET #P_String = STUFF(#P_String, PATINDEX(#P_Pattern, #P_String), #P_ReplaceLength, #P_ReplaceString);
SET #Index = PATINDEX(#P_Pattern, #P_String);
end
RETURN #P_String;
END;
[Gist][1]
[1]: https://gist.github.com/jkdba/ca13fe8f2a9855c4bdbfd0a5d3dfcda2
Edit:
Originally I had a recursive function here which does not play well with sql server as it has a 32 nesting level limit which would result in an error like the below any time you attempt to make 32+ replacements with the function. Instead of trying to make a server level change to allow more nesting (which could be dangerous like allow never ending loops) switching to a while loop makes a lot more sense.
Maximum stored procedure, function, trigger, or view nesting level exceeded (limit 32).
Wrapping the solution inside a SQL function could be useful if you want to reuse it.
I'm even doing it at the cell level, that's why I'm putting this as a different answer:
CREATE FUNCTION [dbo].[fnReplaceInvalidChars] (#string VARCHAR(300))
RETURNS VARCHAR(300)
BEGIN
DECLARE #str VARCHAR(300) = #string;
DECLARE #Pattern VARCHAR (20) = '%[^a-zA-Z0-9]%';
DECLARE #Len INT;
SELECT #Len = LEN(#String);
WHILE #Len > 0
BEGIN
SET #Len = #Len - 1;
IF (PATINDEX(#Pattern,#str) > 0)
BEGIN
SELECT #str = STUFF(#str, PATINDEX(#Pattern,#str),1,'');
END
ELSE
BEGIN
BREAK;
END
END
RETURN #str
END
A more speedy approach for large strings would look something like this:
CREATE FUNCTION [dbo].[fnReplaceInvalidChars] (#string VARCHAR(MAX))
RETURNS VARCHAR(MAX)
BEGIN
DECLARE #str VARCHAR(MAX) = #string;
DECLARE #Pattern VARCHAR (MAX) = '%[^a-zA-Z0-9]%';
WHILE PATINDEX(#Pattern,#str) > 0
BEGIN
SELECT #str = STUFF(#str, PATINDEX(#Pattern,#str),1,'');
END
RETURN #str
END
I've created this function to clean up a string that contained non numeric characters in a time field. The time contained question marks when they did not added the minutes, something like this 20:??. Function loops through each character and replaces the ? with a 0 :
CREATE FUNCTION [dbo].[CleanTime]
(
-- Add the parameters for the function here
#intime nvarchar(10)
)
RETURNS nvarchar(5)
AS
BEGIN
-- Declare the return variable here
DECLARE #ResultVar nvarchar(5)
DECLARE #char char(1)
-- Add the T-SQL statements to compute the return value here
DECLARE #i int = 1
WHILE #i <= LEN(#intime)
BEGIN
SELECT #char = CASE WHEN substring(#intime,#i,1) like '%[0-9:]%' THEN substring(#intime,#i,1) ELSE '0' END
SELECT #ResultVar = concat(#ResultVar,#char)
set #i = #i + 1
END;
-- Return the result of the function
RETURN #ResultVar
END
I think this solution is faster and simple. I use always CTE/recursive because WHILE is so slow on SQL Server.
I use it in projects I work with and large databases.
/*
Function: dbo.kSql_ReplaceRegExp
Create Date: 20.02.2021
Author: Karcan Ozbal
Description: The given string value will be replaced according to the given regexp/pattern.
Parameter(s): #Value : Value/Text to REPLACE.
#RegExp : The regexp/pattern to be used for REPLACE operation.
Usage: select dbo.kSql_ReplaceRegExp('2T3EST5','%[0-9]%')
Output: 'TEST'
*/
ALTER FUNCTION [dbo].[kSql_ReplaceRegExp](
#Value nvarchar(max),
#RegExp nvarchar(50)
)
RETURNS nvarchar(max)
AS
BEGIN
DECLARE #Result nvarchar(max)
;WITH CTE AS (
SELECT NUM = 1, VALUE = #Value, IDX = PATINDEX(#RegExp, #Value)
UNION ALL
SELECT NUM + 1, VALUE = REPLACE(VALUE, SUBSTRING(VALUE,IDX,1),''), IDX = PATINDEX(#RegExp, REPLACE(VALUE, SUBSTRING(VALUE,IDX,1),''))
FROM CTE
WHERE IDX > 0
)
SELECT TOP(1) #Result = VALUE
FROM CTE
ORDER BY NUM DESC
OPTION (maxrecursion 0)
RETURN #Result
END
If you are doing this just for a parameter coming into a Stored Procedure, you can use the following:
declare #badIndex int
set #badIndex = PatIndex('%[^0-9]%', #Param)
while #badIndex > 0
set #Param = Replace(#Param, Substring(#Param, #badIndex, 1), '')
set #badIndex = PatIndex('%[^0-9]%', #Param)
I thought this was clearer:
ALTER FUNCTION [dbo].[func_ReplaceChars](
#Value nvarchar(max),
#Chars nvarchar(50)
)
RETURNS nvarchar(max)
AS
BEGIN
DECLARE #cLen int = len(#Chars);
DECLARE #curChar int = 0;
WHILE #curChar<#cLen
BEGIN
set #Value = replace(#Value,substring(#Chars,#curChar,1),'');
set #curChar = #curChar + 1;
END;
RETURN #Value
END
I'm using this code similar to several codes above:
DROP FUNCTION [dbo].[fnCleanString]
GO
CREATE FUNCTION [dbo].[fnCleanString] (#input VARCHAR(max), #Pattern
VARCHAR (20))
RETURNS VARCHAR(max)
BEGIN
DECLARE #str VARCHAR(max) = #input;
DECLARE #Len INT;
DECLARE #INDEX INT;
SELECT #Len = LEN(#input);
WHILE #Len > 0
BEGIN
SET #INDEX = PATINDEX(#Pattern,#str);
IF (#INDEX > 0)
BEGIN
SET #str=REPLACE(#str,SUBSTRING(#str,#INDEX, 1), '');
END
ELSE
BEGIN
BREAK;
END
END
RETURN #str
END
You can use it like this:
SELECT CleanName = dbo.[fnCleanString](Name, '%[0-9]%') from YourTable
I think a simpler and faster approach is iterate by each character of the alphabet:
DECLARE #i int
SET #i = 0
WHILE(#i < 256)
BEGIN
IF char(#i) NOT IN ('0', '1', '2', '3', '4', '5', '6', '7', '8', '9', '.')
UPDATE Table SET Column = replace(Column, char(#i), '')
SET #i = #i + 1
END

Regex pattern inside SQL Replace function?

SELECT REPLACE('<strong>100</strong><b>.00 GB', '%^(^-?\d*\.{0,1}\d+$)%', '');
I want to replace any markup between two parts of the number with above regex, but it does not seem to work. I'm not sure if it is regex syntax that's wrong because I tried simpler one such as '%[^0-9]%' just to test but it didn't work either. Does anyone know how can I achieve this?
You can use PATINDEX
to find the first index of the pattern (string's) occurrence. Then use STUFF to stuff another string into the pattern(string) matched.
Loop through each row. Replace each illegal characters with what you want. In your case replace non numeric with blank. The inner loop is if you have more than one illegal character in a current cell that of the loop.
DECLARE #counter int
SET #counter = 0
WHILE(#counter < (SELECT MAX(ID_COLUMN) FROM Table))
BEGIN
WHILE 1 = 1
BEGIN
DECLARE #RetVal varchar(50)
SET #RetVal = (SELECT Column = STUFF(Column, PATINDEX('%[^0-9.]%', Column),1, '')
FROM Table
WHERE ID_COLUMN = #counter)
IF(#RetVal IS NOT NULL)
UPDATE Table SET
Column = #RetVal
WHERE ID_COLUMN = #counter
ELSE
break
END
SET #counter = #counter + 1
END
Caution: This is slow though! Having a varchar column may impact. So using LTRIM RTRIM may help a bit. Regardless, it is slow.
Credit goes to this StackOverFlow answer.
EDIT
Credit also goes to #srutzky
Edit (by #Tmdean)
Instead of doing one row at a time, this answer can be adapted to a more set-based solution. It still iterates the max of the number of non-numeric characters in a single row, so it's not ideal, but I think it should be acceptable in most situations.
WHILE 1 = 1 BEGIN
WITH q AS
(SELECT ID_Column, PATINDEX('%[^0-9.]%', Column) AS n
FROM Table)
UPDATE Table
SET Column = STUFF(Column, q.n, 1, '')
FROM q
WHERE Table.ID_Column = q.ID_Column AND q.n != 0;
IF ##ROWCOUNT = 0 BREAK;
END;
You can also improve efficiency quite a lot if you maintain a bit column in the table that indicates whether the field has been scrubbed yet. (NULL represents "Unknown" in my example and should be the column default.)
DECLARE #done bit = 0;
WHILE #done = 0 BEGIN
WITH q AS
(SELECT ID_Column, PATINDEX('%[^0-9.]%', Column) AS n
FROM Table
WHERE COALESCE(Scrubbed_Column, 0) = 0)
UPDATE Table
SET Column = STUFF(Column, q.n, 1, ''),
Scrubbed_Column = 0
FROM q
WHERE Table.ID_Column = q.ID_Column AND q.n != 0;
IF ##ROWCOUNT = 0 SET #done = 1;
-- if Scrubbed_Column is still NULL, then the PATINDEX
-- must have given 0
UPDATE table
SET Scrubbed_Column = CASE
WHEN Scrubbed_Column IS NULL THEN 1
ELSE NULLIF(Scrubbed_Column, 0)
END;
END;
If you don't want to change your schema, this is easy to adapt to store intermediate results in a table valued variable which gets applied to the actual table at the end.
Instead of stripping out the found character by its sole position, using Replace(Column, BadFoundCharacter, '') could be substantially faster. Additionally, instead of just replacing the one bad character found next in each column, this replaces all those found.
WHILE 1 = 1 BEGIN
UPDATE dbo.YourTable
SET Column = Replace(Column, Substring(Column, PatIndex('%[^0-9.-]%', Column), 1), '')
WHERE Column LIKE '%[^0-9.-]%'
If ##RowCount = 0 BREAK;
END;
I am convinced this will work better than the accepted answer, if only because it does fewer operations. There are other ways that might also be faster, but I don't have time to explore those right now.
In a general sense, SQL Server does not support regular expressions and you cannot use them in the native T-SQL code.
You could write a CLR function to do that. See here, for example.
For those looking for a performant and easy solution and are willing to enable CLR:
CREATE database TestSQLFunctions
go
use TestSQLFunctions
go
ALTER database TestSQLFunctions set trustworthy on
EXEC sp_configure 'clr enabled', 1
RECONFIGURE WITH OVERRIDE
go
CREATE ASSEMBLY [SQLFunctions]
AUTHORIZATION [dbo]
FROM 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
WITH PERMISSION_SET = SAFE
go
CREATE FUNCTION RegexReplace(
#input nvarchar(max),
#pattern nvarchar(max),
#replacement nvarchar(max)
) RETURNS nvarchar (max)
AS EXTERNAL NAME SQLFunctions.[SQLFunctions.Regex].Replace;
go
-- outputs This is a test
SELECT dbo.RegexReplace('This is a test 12345','[0-9]','')
Content of the DLL:
I stumbled across this post looking for something else but thought I'd mention a solution I use which is far more efficient - and really should be the default implementation of any function when used with a set based query - which is to use a cross applied table function. Seems the topic is still active so hopefully this is useful to someone.
Example runtime on a few of the answers so far based on running recursive set based queries or scalar function, based on 1m rows test set removing the chars from a random newid, ranges from 34s to 2m05s for the WHILE loop examples and from 1m3s to {forever} for the function examples.
Using a table function with cross apply achieves the same goal in 10s. You may need to adjust it to suit your needs such as the max length it handles.
Function:
CREATE FUNCTION [dbo].[RemoveChars](#InputUnit VARCHAR(40))
RETURNS TABLE
AS
RETURN
(
WITH Numbers_prep(Number) AS
(
SELECT 1 UNION ALL SELECT 1 UNION ALL SELECT 1 UNION ALL SELECT 1 UNION ALL SELECT 1 UNION ALL SELECT 1 UNION ALL SELECT 1
)
,Numbers(Number) AS
(
SELECT TOP (ISNULL(LEN(#InputUnit),0))
row_number() OVER (ORDER BY (SELECT NULL))
FROM Numbers_prep a
CROSS JOIN Numbers_prep b
)
SELECT
OutputUnit
FROM
(
SELECT
substring(#InputUnit,Number,1)
FROM Numbers
WHERE substring(#InputUnit,Number,1) like '%[0-9]%'
ORDER BY Number
FOR XML PATH('')
) Sub(OutputUnit)
)
Usage:
UPDATE t
SET column = o.OutputUnit
FROM ##t t
CROSS APPLY [dbo].[RemoveChars](t.column) o
Here is a function I wrote to accomplish this based off of the previous answers.
CREATE FUNCTION dbo.RepetitiveReplace
(
#P_String VARCHAR(MAX),
#P_Pattern VARCHAR(MAX),
#P_ReplaceString VARCHAR(MAX),
#P_ReplaceLength INT = 1
)
RETURNS VARCHAR(MAX)
BEGIN
DECLARE #Index INT;
-- Get starting point of pattern
SET #Index = PATINDEX(#P_Pattern, #P_String);
while #Index > 0
begin
--replace matching charactger at index
SET #P_String = STUFF(#P_String, PATINDEX(#P_Pattern, #P_String), #P_ReplaceLength, #P_ReplaceString);
SET #Index = PATINDEX(#P_Pattern, #P_String);
end
RETURN #P_String;
END;
[Gist][1]
[1]: https://gist.github.com/jkdba/ca13fe8f2a9855c4bdbfd0a5d3dfcda2
Edit:
Originally I had a recursive function here which does not play well with sql server as it has a 32 nesting level limit which would result in an error like the below any time you attempt to make 32+ replacements with the function. Instead of trying to make a server level change to allow more nesting (which could be dangerous like allow never ending loops) switching to a while loop makes a lot more sense.
Maximum stored procedure, function, trigger, or view nesting level exceeded (limit 32).
Wrapping the solution inside a SQL function could be useful if you want to reuse it.
I'm even doing it at the cell level, that's why I'm putting this as a different answer:
CREATE FUNCTION [dbo].[fnReplaceInvalidChars] (#string VARCHAR(300))
RETURNS VARCHAR(300)
BEGIN
DECLARE #str VARCHAR(300) = #string;
DECLARE #Pattern VARCHAR (20) = '%[^a-zA-Z0-9]%';
DECLARE #Len INT;
SELECT #Len = LEN(#String);
WHILE #Len > 0
BEGIN
SET #Len = #Len - 1;
IF (PATINDEX(#Pattern,#str) > 0)
BEGIN
SELECT #str = STUFF(#str, PATINDEX(#Pattern,#str),1,'');
END
ELSE
BEGIN
BREAK;
END
END
RETURN #str
END
A more speedy approach for large strings would look something like this:
CREATE FUNCTION [dbo].[fnReplaceInvalidChars] (#string VARCHAR(MAX))
RETURNS VARCHAR(MAX)
BEGIN
DECLARE #str VARCHAR(MAX) = #string;
DECLARE #Pattern VARCHAR (MAX) = '%[^a-zA-Z0-9]%';
WHILE PATINDEX(#Pattern,#str) > 0
BEGIN
SELECT #str = STUFF(#str, PATINDEX(#Pattern,#str),1,'');
END
RETURN #str
END
I've created this function to clean up a string that contained non numeric characters in a time field. The time contained question marks when they did not added the minutes, something like this 20:??. Function loops through each character and replaces the ? with a 0 :
CREATE FUNCTION [dbo].[CleanTime]
(
-- Add the parameters for the function here
#intime nvarchar(10)
)
RETURNS nvarchar(5)
AS
BEGIN
-- Declare the return variable here
DECLARE #ResultVar nvarchar(5)
DECLARE #char char(1)
-- Add the T-SQL statements to compute the return value here
DECLARE #i int = 1
WHILE #i <= LEN(#intime)
BEGIN
SELECT #char = CASE WHEN substring(#intime,#i,1) like '%[0-9:]%' THEN substring(#intime,#i,1) ELSE '0' END
SELECT #ResultVar = concat(#ResultVar,#char)
set #i = #i + 1
END;
-- Return the result of the function
RETURN #ResultVar
END
I think this solution is faster and simple. I use always CTE/recursive because WHILE is so slow on SQL Server.
I use it in projects I work with and large databases.
/*
Function: dbo.kSql_ReplaceRegExp
Create Date: 20.02.2021
Author: Karcan Ozbal
Description: The given string value will be replaced according to the given regexp/pattern.
Parameter(s): #Value : Value/Text to REPLACE.
#RegExp : The regexp/pattern to be used for REPLACE operation.
Usage: select dbo.kSql_ReplaceRegExp('2T3EST5','%[0-9]%')
Output: 'TEST'
*/
ALTER FUNCTION [dbo].[kSql_ReplaceRegExp](
#Value nvarchar(max),
#RegExp nvarchar(50)
)
RETURNS nvarchar(max)
AS
BEGIN
DECLARE #Result nvarchar(max)
;WITH CTE AS (
SELECT NUM = 1, VALUE = #Value, IDX = PATINDEX(#RegExp, #Value)
UNION ALL
SELECT NUM + 1, VALUE = REPLACE(VALUE, SUBSTRING(VALUE,IDX,1),''), IDX = PATINDEX(#RegExp, REPLACE(VALUE, SUBSTRING(VALUE,IDX,1),''))
FROM CTE
WHERE IDX > 0
)
SELECT TOP(1) #Result = VALUE
FROM CTE
ORDER BY NUM DESC
OPTION (maxrecursion 0)
RETURN #Result
END
If you are doing this just for a parameter coming into a Stored Procedure, you can use the following:
declare #badIndex int
set #badIndex = PatIndex('%[^0-9]%', #Param)
while #badIndex > 0
set #Param = Replace(#Param, Substring(#Param, #badIndex, 1), '')
set #badIndex = PatIndex('%[^0-9]%', #Param)
I thought this was clearer:
ALTER FUNCTION [dbo].[func_ReplaceChars](
#Value nvarchar(max),
#Chars nvarchar(50)
)
RETURNS nvarchar(max)
AS
BEGIN
DECLARE #cLen int = len(#Chars);
DECLARE #curChar int = 0;
WHILE #curChar<#cLen
BEGIN
set #Value = replace(#Value,substring(#Chars,#curChar,1),'');
set #curChar = #curChar + 1;
END;
RETURN #Value
END
I'm using this code similar to several codes above:
DROP FUNCTION [dbo].[fnCleanString]
GO
CREATE FUNCTION [dbo].[fnCleanString] (#input VARCHAR(max), #Pattern
VARCHAR (20))
RETURNS VARCHAR(max)
BEGIN
DECLARE #str VARCHAR(max) = #input;
DECLARE #Len INT;
DECLARE #INDEX INT;
SELECT #Len = LEN(#input);
WHILE #Len > 0
BEGIN
SET #INDEX = PATINDEX(#Pattern,#str);
IF (#INDEX > 0)
BEGIN
SET #str=REPLACE(#str,SUBSTRING(#str,#INDEX, 1), '');
END
ELSE
BEGIN
BREAK;
END
END
RETURN #str
END
You can use it like this:
SELECT CleanName = dbo.[fnCleanString](Name, '%[0-9]%') from YourTable
I think a simpler and faster approach is iterate by each character of the alphabet:
DECLARE #i int
SET #i = 0
WHILE(#i < 256)
BEGIN
IF char(#i) NOT IN ('0', '1', '2', '3', '4', '5', '6', '7', '8', '9', '.')
UPDATE Table SET Column = replace(Column, char(#i), '')
SET #i = #i + 1
END

I need to do a look up on a table based on each word in a string

I have a table of countries and their abbreviations with a column called code with the abbreviations and a column called name that contains the country names.
I need to iterate through a foreign address and look up each word until I find a match in the table (i.e. the country) and retrieve the abbreviation for a case statement.
This won't be done on all records, only certain ones that would be larger than a field of a 60 chars in a file I'm building.
So What I need to do is something to affect of:
SELECT
CASE WHEN address2 & foreign_address > 60
THEN split and iterate through '12345 MY SUPER LONG ADDRESS IN THE PHILIPPINES' and look up
each string until PHILIPPINES is matched in the country_codes table and 'PH' is returned
END
This is the best way I can think to handle this situation short of truncating the address which I don't want to do for obvious reasons. This also needs to be dynamic based on different addresses and countries.
My biggest challenge at this point is breaking up the string and doing a look up on each string fragment.
SELECT Addresses.foreign_address, Countries.Code
FROM Addresses, Countries
WHERE LEN(foreign_address) > 60
AND foreign_address LIKE '%' Countries.Name '%'
[Code] will contain the abbreviated code of the country that was matched.
Here's the relevant SQLFiddle (and code below in full):
CREATE TABLE Countries (Name varchar(128), Code varchar(2));
CREATE TABLE Addresses (foreign_address varchar(512));
INSERT INTO Countries(Name,Code) VALUES('PHILIPPINES', 'PH');
INSERT INTO Addresses(foreign_address)
VALUES('12345 MY SUPER LONG ADDRESS IN THE PHILIPPINES UNTIL PHILIPPINES IS MATCHED AND PH IS RETURNED');
SELECT Addresses.foreign_address, Countries.Code
FROM Addresses, Countries
WHERE LEN(foreign_address) > 60
AND foreign_address LIKE '%' + Countries.Name + '%'
Something like this, may be?
select l.abbr, a.id
from
lookup_table l, address_table a
where
charindex(l.country_name, a.address2 + a.foreign_address) > 0
and len( a.address2 + a.foreign_address) > 60
Not tested.
Edited for the SQL Server 2005 string concatenation operator.
You can use LIKE instead of breaking up by word:
declare #address2 varchar(128)
declare #foreign_address varchar(128)
set #address2 = '12345 MY SUPER LONG ADDRESS IN THE PHILIPPINES'
set #foreign_address = '123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890'
SELECT
CASE
WHEN len(#address2 + #foreign_address) > 60
AND (' ' + #address2 + ' ' + #foreign_address + ' ') like '% PHILIPPINES %'
THEN 'PH'
ELSE NULL
END
I am not advocating this style of programming in SQL Server, but this is how I would do what you asked to do. First, tokenize the string into single words in a table variable. Then opena a cursor on the table variable and loop through the words, calling break if we find a result from dbo.countries. Please note, loops are very inefficient in SQL Server. The UDF table function came from here: How to split a string in T-SQL?
-- Create the UDF
CREATE FUNCTION Splitfn(#String varchar(8000), #Delimiter char(1))
returns #temptable TABLE (items varchar(8000))
as
begin
declare #idx int
declare #slice varchar(8000)
select #idx = 1
if len(#String)<1 or #String is null return
while #idx!= 0
begin
set #idx = charindex(#Delimiter,#String)
if #idx!=0
set #slice = left(#String,#idx - 1)
else
set #slice = #String
if(len(#slice)>0)
insert into #temptable(Items) values(#slice)
set #String = right(#String,len(#String) - #idx)
if len(#String) = 0 break
end
return
end
go
-- Create the dbo.countries table so we can test our code later
create table dbo.countries (code char(2), name varchar(100))
go
-- Insert one record in dbo.countries so we can test our code later
insert into dbo.countries (code, name)
select 'PH', 'PHILIPPINES'
go
-- for one #String input, this is what I would do
declare #String varchar(1000) = '12345 MY SUPER LONG ADDRESS IN THE PHILIPPINES'
declare #CountryCode char(2) = ''
declare #done bit = 0x0
declare #word varchar(1000)
declare #words table (word varchar(250) primary key)
-- Break apart your #String into a table of records, only returning the DISTINCT values.
-- Join on the domain list so we can only process the ones that will return data in the CURSOR (eliminating excess looping)
insert into #words (word)
--
select distinct items as word
from dbo.Splitfn(#String, ' ') s
join dbo.countries c
on lower(c.name) = lower(s.items)
declare word_cursor CURSOR for
select word
from #words w
open word_cursor
fetch next from word_cursor into #word
while ##FETCH_STATUS = 0
begin
select #CountryCode = code
from dbo.countries
where name = #word
if ##trancount > 0
begin
break
end
fetch next from word_cursor into #word
end
-- clean up the cursor
close word_cursor
deallocate word_cursor
-- return the found CountryCode
select #CountryCode

How to compare multiple values in one column against a delimited string in a stored procedure

Ok, first question, and you guys scare me with how much you know, so please be gentle...
I am trying to pass in a delimited string and convert it to an array in a stored procedure and then use the array to check against values in a column. Here's the catch. I'm trying to take the preexisting table, that checks for one association and expand it to allow for multiple associations.
So the column annAssociations might have three ids, 4,16,32, but I need to check if it belongs to the groupIds being queried, 6,12,32. Since one of the values matched, it should return that row.
Here is the procedure as it exists.
CREATE PROCEDURE [dbo].[sp_annList]
-- Date Range of Announcements.
#dateBegin datetime,
#dateEnd datetime,
-- Announcement type and associations.
#annType varchar(50),
#annAssociation varchar(255)
AS
BEGIN
-- Set the SELECT statement for the announcements.
SET NOCOUNT ON;
-- See if this should be a limited query
IF #annAssociation <> ''
Begin
SELECT *
FROM announcements
WHERE (date1 <= #dateEnd AND date2 >= #dateBegin) -- See if the announcement falls in the date range.
AND annType = #annType -- See if the announcement is the right type.
AND annAssociations LIKE (select SplitText from dbo.fnSplit(#annAssociation, ','))
ORDER BY title
END
Else
Begin
SELECT *
FROM announcements
WHERE (date1 <= #dateEnd AND date2 >= #dateBegin)
AND annType = #annType
ORDER BY title
End
END
And here is the method I'm using to convert the delimited string and store it in a temporary table.
CREATE Function [dbo].[fnSplit](#text text, #delimitor nchar(1))
RETURNS
#table TABLE
(
[Index] int Identity(0,1),
[SplitText] varchar(10)
)
AS
BEGIN
declare #current varchar(10)
declare #endIndex int
declare #textlength int
declare #startIndex int
set #startIndex = 1
if(#text is not null)
begin
set #textLength = datalength(#text)
while(1=1)
begin
set #endIndex = charindex(#delimitor, #text, #startIndex)
if(#endIndex != 0)
begin
set #current = substring(#text,#startIndex, #endIndex - #StartIndex)
Insert Into #table ([SplitText]) values(#current)
set #startIndex = #endIndex + 1
end
else
begin
set #current = substring(#text, #startIndex, datalength(#text)-#startIndex+1)
Insert Into #table ([SplitText]) values(#current)
break
end
end
end
return
END
Sorry for the long question. I just wanted to get all the info out there. I've been researching for days, and I either don't know where to look or am missing something obvious.
You probably won't get much better performance than this approach (well you might see better performance with a CLR split function but at 3 or 4 items you won't see much difference):
SELECT *
FROM announcements AS a
WHERE ...
AND EXISTS (SELECT 1 FROM dbo.fnSplit(#annAssociation) AS n
WHERE ',' + a.annList + ',' LIKE '%,' + n.SplitText + ',%');
The key here is that you only need to split up one of the lists.
You really should stop storing multiple values in the annAssocations column. Each id is a separate piece of data and should be stored separately (in addition to better conforming to normalization, it will make queries like this simpler).

String Expression to be evaluated to number

I need to write a TSQL user defined function which will accept a string and return a number.
I will call the function like dbo.EvaluateExpression('10*4.5*0.5') should return the number 22.5
Can any one help me to write this function EvaluateExpression.
Currently I am using CLR function which I need to avoid.
Edit1
I know this can be done using stored procedure, but I want to call this function in some statements ex: select 10* dbo.EvaluateExpression('10*4.5*0.5')
Also I have around 400,000 formulas like this to be evaluated.
Edit2
I know we can do it using osql.exe inside function as explained here. But due to permission settings, I can not use this also.
I don't think that is possible in a user defined function.
You could do it in a stored procedure, like:
declare #calc varchar(max)
set #calc = '10*4.5*0.5'
declare #sql nvarchar(max)
declare #result float
set #sql = N'set #result = ' + #calc
exec sp_executesql #sql, N'#result float output', #result out
select #result
But dynamic SQL, like exec or sp_executesql, is not allowed in user defined functions.
Disclaimer: I'm the owner of the project Eval SQL.NET
For SQL 2012+, you can use Eval SQL.NET which can be run with SAFE Permission.
The performance is great (better than UDF) and honors operator precedence and parenthesis. In fact, almost all the C# language is supported.
You can also specify parameters to your formula.
-- SELECT 225.00
SELECT 10 * CAST(SQLNET::New('10*4.5*0.5').Eval() AS DECIMAL(18, 2))
-- SELECT 70
DECLARE #formula VARCHAR(50) = 'a+b*c'
SELECT 10 * SQLNET::New(#formula)
.Val('a', 1)
.Val('b', 2)
.Val('c', 3)
.EvalInt()
Use this Function, It will absolutely working.
CREATE FUNCTION dbo.EvaluateExpression(#list nvarchar(MAX))
RETURNS Decimal(10,2)
AS
BEGIN
Declare #Result Decimal(10,2)
set #Result=1
DECLARE #pos int,
#nextpos int,
#valuelen int
SELECT #pos = 0, #nextpos = 1
WHILE #nextpos > 0
BEGIN
SELECT #nextpos = charindex('*', #list, #pos + 1)
SELECT #valuelen = CASE WHEN #nextpos > 0
THEN #nextpos
ELSE len(#list) + 1
END - #pos - 1
Set #Result=#Result*convert(decimal(10,2),substring(#list, #pos + 1, #valuelen))
SELECT #pos = #nextpos
END
RETURN #Result
END
You Can use this
Select 10* dbo.EvaluateExpression('10*4.5*0.5')
You can use the SQL Stored procedure below to calculate the result of any formula with any number of variables:
I wrote in 2012 a solution which can evaluate any type of Mathematical formula using SQL SERVER. The solution can handle any formula with N variables :
I was asked to find a way to evaluate the value given by a Formula which is filled by the user.
The Formula contains mathematical operations (addition, multiplication, division and subtractions)
The parameters used to calculate the formula are stored in the SQL server DATA BASE.
The solution I found by myself was as follows:
Suppose I have n parameters used to calculate the formula, each of these parameters is stored in one row in one data table.
The data table containing the n rows to use in the formula is called tab_value
I have to store the n values found in n rows (in tab_values) in one single row in one new Table, using SQL cursor,
for that I create a new table called tab_formula
In the cursor, I will add a new column for each value, the column name will be Id1,Id2,Id3 etc.
Then I construct a SQL script containing the formula to evaluate the formula
Here after the complete script, I hope you find it useful, you are welcome to ask me about it.
The procedure uses as input:
-The formula
-A table containing the values used to calculate the formula
if exists(select 1 from sysobjects where name='usp_evaluate_formula' and xtype='p')
drop proc usp_evaluate_formula
go
create type type_tab as table(id int identity(1,1),val decimal(10,2))
go
create proc usp_evaluate_formula(#formula as nvarchar(100),#values as type_tab readonly)
as begin
declare #tab_values table (id int, val decimal(10,2))
insert into #tab_values(id,val) select * from #values
declare #id as int declare #val as decimal(10,2)
if not exists(select 1 from sysobjects where name ='tab_formula')
create table tab_formula(id int identity(1,1), formula nvarchar(1000))
if not exists(select 1 from tab_formula where formula=#formula)
insert into tab_formula(formula) values(#formula)
declare c cursor for select id,val from #tab_values
declare #script as nvarchar(4000)
open c
fetch c into #id,#val
while ##fetch_status=0
begin
set #script = 'if not exists(select 1 from syscolumns c inner join sysobjects o on c.id=o.id where o.name=''tab_formula'' and c.name=''id'+
convert(nvarchar(3),#id)+ ''')
alter table tab_formula add id'+convert(nvarchar(3),#id)+ ' decimal(10,2)'
print #script
exec(#script)
set #script='update tab_formula set id'+convert(nvarchar(3),#id)+'='+convert(nvarchar(10),#val)+' where formula='''+#formula+'''' print #script exec(#script) fetch c into #id,#val end close c deallocate c
set #script='select *,convert(decimal(10,2),'+#formula+') "Result" from tab_formula where formula='''+#formula+''''
print #script
exec(#script)
end
go
declare #mytab as type_tab
insert into #mytab(val) values(1.56),(1.5) ,(2.5) ,(32),(1.7) ,(3.3) ,(3.9)
exec usp_evaluate_formula'2*cos(id1)+cos(id2)+cos(id3)+3*cos(id4)+cos(id5)+cos(id6)+cos(id7)/2*cos(Id6)',#mytab
go
drop proc usp_evaluate_formula
drop type type_tab
drop table tab_formula

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