SUBSTRING Question?

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SUBSTRING Question?

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dustin.walker

Posted Monday, March 14, 2011 7:13 AM

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Can someone please help! I'm having an issue with a query. It's using a SUBSTRING but I think there's a problem with it. It returns 0 rows when it should return 1. Here is the query in question.

SELECT v.veh_id, vi.inventory_id, SUBSTRING(bd.buft_string_1, 35, 70), bd.*
FROM buft_chrysler_data AS bd
INNER JOIN vehicle AS v WITH (NOLOCK)
ON SUBSTRING(bd.buft_string_1, 14, 17) = v.vin
INNER JOIN vehicle_inventory AS vi WITH (NOLOCK)
ON v.veh_id = vi.veh_id
AND vi.own_dtm = (SELECT MAX(o.own_dtm)
FROM ownership AS o WITH (NOLOCK)
WHERE o.veh_id = v.veh_id
AND o.tran_account_id = 1) -- Chrysler
INNER JOIN message_dcx_met_part_audit AS mdmpa WITH (NOLOCK)
--ON LTRIM(RTRIM(SUBSTRING(bd.buft_string_1, 35, 70))) = LTRIM(RTRIM(mdmpa.message_text))
ON SUBSTRING(bd.buft_string_1, 35, 70) = mdmpa.message_text
WHERE bd.tran_event_id = 62139

I think the issue is on "SUBSTRING(bd.buft_string_1, 35, 70) = mdmpa.message_text". The mdmpa.message_text field is a varchar(70), this is why we're using 70 as our Substring length. However, it doesn't seem to like this. It should match where message_text is equal to "ALL MET ITEMS FOR VIN PROCESSED SUCCESSFULLY". If I simply use "SUBSTRING(bd.buft_string_1, 35, 44) instead where 44 is the exact length of the string it works just fine. How do I account for a varchar field though?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Post #1077681

Sean Lange

Posted Monday, March 14, 2011 7:38 AM

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Last Login: 2 days ago @ 8:46 AM
Points: 8,547, Visits: 8,204

Try using datalength instead of a hardcoded length. Think that should get you the desired result.

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Post #1077691

David Burrows

Posted Monday, March 14, 2011 7:39 AM

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I think the issue is on "SUBSTRING(bd.buft_string_1, 35, 70) = mdmpa.message_text"

Did you prove this by removing the join and getting rows returned?

If it is the substring then the most likely cause is either bd.buft_string_1 contains non space chars (hidden or otherwise) after "ALL MET ITEMS FOR VIN PROCESSED SUCCESSFULLY" or the text does not start at column 35.

What is the size of bd.buft_string_1?

Far away is close at hand in the images of elsewhere.

Anon.

Post #1077694

David Burrows

Posted Monday, March 14, 2011 7:41 AM

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Also check that mdmpa.message_text does not have non space chars following "ALL MET ITEMS FOR VIN PROCESSED SUCCESSFULLY"

Far away is close at hand in the images of elsewhere.

Anon.

Post #1077696

dustin.walker

Posted Monday, March 14, 2011 7:49 AM

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Last Login: Monday, May 13, 2013 7:09 AM
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Thanks Sean! I was able to use datalength and it works successfully now. Thanks for everyone's help!

Post #1077703

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