Help please, total newbie trying to learn. Trying to Change the first character in a field

• EMMA.POTTER

  Valued Member

  Points: 56

  More actions

  March 6, 2017 at 3:21 am

  #341448

  Hi All,

  SELECT   Timesheet_Number, Employer_Ref, Personnel_Ref, Division, Department, Job_Location, Tax_Year, Tax_Period
  FROM    Timesheets
  WHERE   (Timesheet_Number LIKE 'EPCB%')

  This returns 1000 timesheet numbers starting with 'EPCB'     (Example number is 'EPCB066166')
  I want to change the 'EPCB' at the start to read 'HPCB' instead. (Result number would be 'HPCB066166')

  How do I do this please?

  Thanks
  Emma

• John Mitchell-245523

  SSC Guru

  Points: 148809

  More actions

  March 6, 2017 at 3:32 am

  #1931748

  UPDATE Timesheets
SET Timesheet_Number = STUFF(Timesheet_number,1,4,'HPCD')
WHERE Timesheet_Number LIKE 'EPCB%'
  Make sure you understand what the STUFF function does before you use this in production.  You're the one who'll be supporting it, so you need to know how it works!

  Edit - corrected typo in code

  John
  

• EMMA.POTTER

  Valued Member

  Points: 56

  More actions

  March 6, 2017 at 3:51 am

  #1931753

  Thank you for your help, I will research STUFF now

  Thanks

• Steve Jones - SSC Editor

  SSC Guru

  Points: 738337

  More actions

  March 6, 2017 at 8:28 am

  #1931829

  For reference: STUFF