What is the best way to remove all spaces from a string in SQL Server 2008?
LTRIM(RTRIM(' a b ')) would remove all spaces at the right and left of the string, but I also need to remove the space in the middle.
This question is related to
sql
sql-server
string
whitespace
trim
It seems that everybody keeps referring to a single REPLACE function. Or even many calls of a REPLACE function. But when you have dynamic output with an unknown number of spaces, it wont work. Anybody that deals with this issue on a regular basis knows that REPLACE will only remove a single space, NOT ALL, as it should. And LTRIM and RTRIM seem to have the same issue. Leave it to Microsoft. Here's a sample output that uses a WHILE Loop to remove ALL CHAR(32) values (space).
DECLARE @INPUT_VAL VARCHAR(8000)
DECLARE @OUTPUT_VAL VARCHAR(8000)
SET @INPUT_VAL = ' C A '
SET @OUTPUT_VAL = @INPUT_VAL
WHILE CHARINDEX(CHAR(32), @OUTPUT_VAL) > 0 BEGIN
SET @OUTPUT_VAL = REPLACE(@INPUT_VAL, CHAR(32), '')
END
PRINT 'START:' + @INPUT_VAL + ':END'
PRINT 'START:' + @OUTPUT_VAL + ':END'
Here's the output of the above code:
START: C A :END
START:CA:END
Now to take it a step further and utilize it in an UPDATE or SELECT statement, change it to a udf.
CREATE FUNCTION udf_RemoveSpaces (@INPUT_VAL VARCHAR(8000))
RETURNS VARCHAR(8000)
AS
BEGIN
DECLARE @OUTPUT_VAL VARCHAR(8000)
SET @OUTPUT_VAL = @INPUT_VAL
-- ITTERATE THROUGH STRING TO LOOK FOR THE ASCII VALUE OF SPACE (CHAR(32)) REPLACE IT WITH BLANK, NOT NULL
WHILE CHARINDEX(CHAR(32), @OUTPUT_VAL) > 0 BEGIN
SET @OUTPUT_VAL = REPLACE(@INPUT_VAL, CHAR(32), '')
END
RETURN @OUTPUT_VAL
END
Then utilize the function in a SELECT or INSERT statement:
UPDATE A
SET STATUS_REASON_CODE = WHATEVER.dbo.udf_RemoveSpaces(STATUS_REASON_CODE)
FROM WHATEVER..ACCT_INFO A
WHERE A.SOMEVALUE = @SOMEVALUE
INSERT INTO SOMETABLE
(STATUS_REASON_CODE)
SELECT WHATEVER.dbo.udf_RemoveSpaces(STATUS_REASON_CODE)
FROM WHATEVER..ACCT_INFO A
WHERE A.SOMEVALUE = @SOMEVALUE
REPLACE(field, ' ', '')
To remove the spaces in a string left and right. To remove space in middle use Replace.
You can use RTRIM() to remove spaces from the right and LTRIM() to remove spaces from the left hence left and right spaces removed as follows:
SELECT * FROM table WHERE LTRIM(RTRIM(username)) = LTRIM(RTRIM("Bob alias baby"))
This does the trick of removing the spaces on the strings:
UPDATE
tablename
SET
columnname = replace(columnname, ' ', '');
A functional version (udf) that removes spaces, cr, lf, tabs or configurable.
select Common.ufn_RemoveWhitespace(' 234 asdf wefwef 3 x ', default) as S
Result: '234asdfwefwef3x'
alter function Common.RemoveWhitespace
(
@pString nvarchar(max),
@pWhitespaceCharsOpt nvarchar(max) = null -- default: tab, lf, cr, space
)
returns nvarchar(max) as
/*--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Purpose: Compress whitespace
Example: select Common.ufn_RemoveWhitespace(' 234 asdf wefwef 3 x ', default) as s
-- Result: 234asdfwefwef3x
Modified By Description
---------- ----------- --------------------------------------------------------------------
2018.07.24 crokusek Initial Version
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------*/
begin
declare
@maxLen bigint = 1073741823, -- (2^31 - 1) / 2 (https://stackoverflow.com/a/4270085/538763)
@whitespaceChars nvarchar(30) = coalesce(
@pWhitespaceCharsOpt,
char(9) + char(10) + char(13) + char(32)); -- tab, lf, cr, space
declare
@whitespacePattern nvarchar(30) = '%[' + @whitespaceChars + ']%',
@nonWhitespacePattern nvarchar(30) = '%[^' + @whitespaceChars + ']%',
@previousString nvarchar(max) = '';
while (@pString != @previousString)
begin
set @previousString = @pString;
declare
@whiteIndex int = patindex(@whitespacePattern, @pString);
if (@whiteIndex > 0)
begin
declare
@whitespaceLength int = nullif(patindex(@nonWhitespacePattern, substring(@pString, @whiteIndex, @maxLen)), 0) - 1;
set @pString =
substring(@pString, 1, @whiteIndex - 1) +
iif(@whiteSpaceLength > 0, substring(@pString, @whiteIndex + @whiteSpaceLength, @maxLen), '');
end
end
return @pString;
end
go
Check and Try the below script (Unit Tested)-
--Declaring
DECLARE @Tbl TABLE(col_1 VARCHAR(100));
--Test Samples
INSERT INTO @Tbl (col_1)
VALUES
(' EY y
Salem')
, (' EY P ort Chennai ')
, (' EY Old Park ')
, (' EY ')
, (' EY ')
,(''),(null),('d
f');
SELECT col_1 AS INPUT,
LTRIM(RTRIM(
REPLACE(
REPLACE(
REPLACE(
REPLACE(
REPLACE(
REPLACE(
REPLACE(
REPLACE(
REPLACE(
REPLACE(
REPLACE(col_1,CHAR(10),' ')
,CHAR(11),' ')
,CHAR(12),' ')
,CHAR(13),' ')
,CHAR(14),' ')
,CHAR(160),' ')
,CHAR(13)+CHAR(10),' ')
,CHAR(9),' ')
,' ',CHAR(17)+CHAR(18))
,CHAR(18)+CHAR(17),'')
,CHAR(17)+CHAR(18),' ')
)) AS [OUTPUT]
FROM @Tbl;
For some reason, the replace works only with one string each time. I had a string like this "Test MSP" and I want to leave only one space.
I used the approach that @Farhan did, but with some modifications:
CREATE FUNCTION ReplaceAll
(
@OriginalString varchar(8000),
@StringToRemove varchar(20),
@StringToPutInPlace varchar(20)
)
RETURNS varchar(8000)
AS
BEGIN
declare @ResultStr varchar(8000)
set @ResultStr = @OriginalString
while charindex(@StringToRemove, @ResultStr) > 0
set @ResultStr = replace(@ResultStr, @StringToRemove, @StringToPutInPlace)
return @ResultStr
END
Then I run my update like this
UPDATE tbTest SET Description = dbo.ReplaceAll(Description, ' ', ' ') WHERE ID = 14225
Then I got this result: Test MSP
Posting here if in case someone needs it as I did.
Running on: Microsoft SQL Server 2016 (SP2)
Reference taken from this blog:
First, Create sample table and data:
CREATE TABLE tbl_RemoveExtraSpaces
(
Rno INT
,Name VARCHAR(100)
)
GO
INSERT INTO tbl_RemoveExtraSpaces VALUES (1,'I am Anvesh Patel')
INSERT INTO tbl_RemoveExtraSpaces VALUES (2,'Database Research and Development ')
INSERT INTO tbl_RemoveExtraSpaces VALUES (3,'Database Administrator ')
INSERT INTO tbl_RemoveExtraSpaces VALUES (4,'Learning BIGDATA and NOSQL ')
GO
Script to SELECT string without Extra Spaces:
SELECT
[Rno]
,[Name] AS StringWithSpace
,LTRIM(RTRIM(REPLACE(REPLACE(REPLACE([Name],CHAR(32),'()'),')(',''),'()',CHAR(32)))) AS StringWithoutSpace
FROM tbl_RemoveExtraSpaces
Result:
Rno StringWithSpace StringWithoutSpace
----------- ----------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------
1 I am Anvesh Patel I am Anvesh Patel
2 Database Research and Development Database Research and Development
3 Database Administrator Database Administrator
4 Learning BIGDATA and NOSQL Learning BIGDATA and NOSQL
if you want to remove spaces,-, and another text from string then use following :
suppose you have a mobile number in your Table like '718-378-4957' or ' 7183784957' and you want replace and get the mobile number then use following Text.
select replace(replace(replace(replace(MobileNo,'-',''),'(',''),')',''),' ','') from EmployeeContactNumber
Result :-- 7183784957
replace(replace(column_Name,CHAR(13),''),CHAR(10),'')
this is useful for me:
CREATE FUNCTION dbo.TRIM(@String VARCHAR(MAX))
RETURNS VARCHAR(MAX)
BEGIN
RETURN LTRIM(RTRIM(REPLACE(REPLACE(REPLACE(REPLACE(REPLACE(REPLACE(@String,CHAR(10),'[]'),CHAR(13),'[]'),char(9),'[]'),CHAR(32),'[]'),'][',''),'[]',CHAR(32))));
END
GO
.
To make all of the answers above complete, there are additional posts on StackOverflow on how to deal with ALL whitespace characters (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitespace_character for a full list of these characters):
If there are multiple white spaces in a string, then replace may not work correctly. For that, the following function should be used.
CREATE FUNCTION RemoveAllSpaces
(
@InputStr varchar(8000)
)
RETURNS varchar(8000)
AS
BEGIN
declare @ResultStr varchar(8000)
set @ResultStr = @InputStr
while charindex(' ', @ResultStr) > 0
set @ResultStr = replace(@InputStr, ' ', '')
return @ResultStr
END
Example:
select dbo.RemoveAllSpaces('aa aaa aa aa a')
Output:
aaaaaaaaaa
I had this issue today and replace / trim did the trick..see below.
update table_foo
set column_bar = REPLACE(LTRIM(RTRIM(column_bar)), ' ', '')
before and after :
old-bad: column_bar | New-fixed: column_bar
' xyz ' | 'xyz'
' xyz ' | 'xyz'
' xyz ' | 'xyz'
' xyz ' | 'xyz'
' xyz ' | 'xyz'
' xyz ' | 'xyz'
If it is an update on a table all you have to do is run this update multiple times until it is affecting 0 rows.
update tableName
set colName = REPLACE(LTRIM(RTRIM(colName)), ' ', ' ')
where colName like '% %'
Just a tip, in case you are having trouble with the replace function, you might have the datatype set to nchar (in which case it is a fixed length and it will not work).
Just in case you need to TRIM spaces in all columns, you could use this script to do it dynamically:
--Just change table name
declare @MyTable varchar(100)
set @MyTable = 'MyTable'
--temp table to get column names and a row id
select column_name, ROW_NUMBER() OVER(ORDER BY column_name) as id into #tempcols from INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLUMNS
WHERE DATA_TYPE IN ('varchar', 'nvarchar') and TABLE_NAME = @MyTable
declare @tri int
select @tri = count(*) from #tempcols
declare @i int
select @i = 0
declare @trimmer nvarchar(max)
declare @comma varchar(1)
set @comma = ', '
--Build Update query
select @trimmer = 'UPDATE [dbo].[' + @MyTable + '] SET '
WHILE @i <= @tri
BEGIN
IF (@i = @tri)
BEGIN
set @comma = ''
END
SELECT @trimmer = @trimmer + CHAR(10)+ '[' + COLUMN_NAME + '] = LTRIM(RTRIM([' + COLUMN_NAME + ']))'+@comma
FROM #tempcols
where id = @i
select @i = @i+1
END
--execute the entire query
EXEC sp_executesql @trimmer
drop table #tempcols
Syntax for replacing a specific characters:
REPLACE ( string_expression , string_pattern , string_replacement )
For example in the string "HelloReplaceThingsGoing" Replace word is replaced by How
SELECT REPLACE('HelloReplaceThingsGoing','Replace','How');
GO
100% working
UPDATE table_name SET "column_name"=replace("column_name", ' ', ''); //Remove white space
UPDATE table_name SET "column_name"=replace("column_name", '\n', ''); //Remove newline
UPDATE table_name SET "column_name"=replace("column_name", '\t', ''); //Remove all tab
You can use "column_name" or column_name
Thanks
Subroto
Try to use like this, if normal spaces are not removed by LTRM or RTRM
LTRIM(RTRIM(REPLACE(REPLACE(REPLACE(Column_data, CHAR(9), ''), CHAR(10), ''), CHAR(13), '')))
t-sql replace http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms186862.aspx
replace(val, ' ', '')
Source: Stackoverflow.com