Patrick Dooley (11/7/2013)
Hello - I've got a lot of experience writing basic queries, but I've not come across the REVERSE(STUFF(REVERSE... functions, and I am encountering them fairly frequently in my client's code. I know that 'REVERSE' can take a string and reverse its order on output, and that STUFF allows one to place a string in the middle of another string and specify which parts of the string get replaced. However, seeing them together (as in the example code below), I am unsure what the English translation is. I would like to know what this snippet of code is actually doing and what is ultimately written out to the field 'AccountCode_Lkup_Error_Msg'. Thank you!
(REVERSE(STUFF(REVERSE(CASE WHEN S.Phase_Code IS NOT NULL AND S.ValidPhaseCode IS NULL THEN 'Phase value ' + S.Phase_Code + ' not present in TBL_ACCOUNTING_CODE table | ' ELSE '' END+ CASE WHEN S.Member IS NOT NULL AND S.ValidMember IS NULL THEN Member value ' + S.Member + ' not present in TBL_ACCOUNTING_CODE table | ' ELSE '' END
+ CASE WHEN s.Participation IS NOT NULL AND S.ValidParticipation IS NULL THEN 'Participation value '+ S.Participation + ' not present in TBL_ACCOUNTING_CODE table | ' ELSE '' END), 1, 3, '')))
END
as AccountCode_LkUp_Error_Msg
Well whatever you posted actually doesn't work because there are some syntax issues around your strings. When trying to understand complex piece like this you have to find a way to make it easier to figure out. I did this to your code by removing all the case expressions and just making a big string.
Something like this:
SELECT Reverse(Stuff(Reverse(
'Phase value S.Phase_Code not present in TBL_ACCOUNTING_CODE table | '
+ 'Member value S.Member not present in TBL_ACCOUNTING_CODE table | '
+ 'Participation value S.Participation not present in TBL_ACCOUNTING_CODE table | '
), 1, 3, ''))
AS AccountCode_LkUp_Error_Msg
, 'Phase value S.Phase_Code not present in TBL_ACCOUNTING_CODE table | '
+ 'Member value S.Member not present in TBL_ACCOUNTING_CODE table | '
+ 'Participation value S.Participation not present in TBL_ACCOUNTING_CODE table | ' as OriginalString
Basically all this is doing is removing the last 3 characters from the string. It is not the most efficient way to do this because REVERSE is an expensive operation and this code does it twice.
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