Using REPLACE to remove characters from Selected positions in your SQL Server column string

I faced a simple but challenging issue recently. A table had a nvarchar column with data in the following format: 91-39-45-3845

The Column was expected to be in the format 913945-3845 with the first two hyphens (-) removed.

Here’s how the requirement was achieved:

DECLARE @TT table
(
ItemDescription nvarchar(20)
)

INSERT INTO @TT VALUES('91-39-45-3845')
INSERT INTO @TT VALUES('45-24-85-5643')
INSERT INTO @TT VALUES('57-54-92-8835')

SELECT * FROM @TT

UPDATE @TT
SET ItemDescription = REPLACE(SUBSTRING(ItemDescription, 1, 7), '-', '')
+ SUBSTRING(ItemDescription, 8, DATALENGTH(ItemDescription))

SELECT * FROM @TT

OUTPUT:

Before the query was run

After the query was run

About The Author

Suprotim Agarwal, MCSD, MCAD, MCDBA, MCSE, is the founder of DotNetCurry, DNC Magazine for Developers, SQLServerCurry and DevCurry. He has also authored a couple of books 51 Recipes using jQuery with ASP.NET Controls and a new one recently at The Absolutely Awesome jQuery CookBook.

Suprotim has received the prestigous Microsoft MVP award for nine times in a row now. In a professional capacity, he is the CEO of A2Z Knowledge Visuals Pvt Ltd, a digital group that represents premium web sites and digital publications comprising of Professional web, windows, mobile and cloud developers, technical managers, and architects.

Get in touch with him on Twitter @suprotimagarwal, LinkedIn or befriend him on Facebook