Substring and Charindex

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Substring and Charindex

The_V

Mr or Mrs. 500

Points: 561
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October 24, 2011 at 4:15 pm

#249823

I am using the following case statement to extract information from a long string with the '|' symbol listed multiple times in the string.
Case
when Len(F.Comments) is null
then Null
when Left(F.Comments,Charindex('|', F.Comments)-1) like 'File Name:%'
then Substring(F.Comments,11,CHARINDEX( '|', F.Comments)-1)
when Left(F.Comments,Charindex('|', F.Comments)-1) like 'File:%'
then Substring(F.Comments,6,CHARINDEX( '|', F.Comments)-1)
when (F.Comments is not Null or Left(F.Comments,Charindex('|', F.Comments,1)-1) not like 'File Name:%'
or Left(F.Comments,Charindex('|', F.Comments)-1) not like 'File:')
then Substring(F.Comments,1,CHARINDEX( '|', F.Comments)-1)
End as Letter_name,
An example of the results are listed below:
ACCT#Letter_name
1BACGENTPN_CF_10202011
2BTPN_09232010 | Vendor:
3BTPN_09232010 | Vendor:
4 BACGENTPN_07152010 | Vendor:
5 BACGENTPN_07152010 | Vendor:
6BACLITTPN_11262010,LMO 0416 Cover Letter|Vendor: S
7BACGENTPN_08312010 | Ven
8BACGENTPN_08312010 | Ven
9BACGENTPN_08312010 | Ven
10BACGENTPN_08312010 | Ven
11BACGENTPN_08312010 | Ven
12BACGENTPN_08312010 | Ven
13BACGENTPN_08312010 | Ven
14 BACBKPTPN_08242010 | Vendor:
15 BACBKPTPN_08242010 | Vendor:
16 BACBKPTPN_09092010 | Vendor:
17 BACBKPTPN_09092010 | Vendor:
18BACGENTPN_09212010 | Vendor:
19BACGENTPN_09212010 | Vendor:
20BACGENTPN_08312010 | Ven
21BACGENTPN_08312010 | Ven
22BTPN_09232010 | Vendor:
23BACBKPTPN_01272011_V2| Vendor:S
24BACBKPTPN_01272011_V2| Vendor:S
25BTPN_09232010 | Vendor:
Row 1 is the ideal Letter_name I want returned. I only want to return the characters before the 1st '|'. I used substring because the words File: and File Name: were at the beginning of some of the strings. Any suggestions?

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Possinator Hall of Fame Points: 3422 More actions · Answer 1

Try something like this - I wasn't able to test without setting up data, but this should be close:

SELECT

Field=F.Comments

--find starting location: first colon + 1

,StartAt=CHARINDEX( ':',F.Comments) + 1

--find ending location: first pipe - 1

,EndAt=CHARINDEX( '|',F.Comments) - 1

--find number of chars to return (end location - start location)

,NumberOfChars=(CHARINDEX( '|',F.Comments) - 1) - (CHARINDEX( ':',F.Comments) + 1)

--get substring: substring(field, StartAt, NumberOfChars)

,GetMidString=SUBSTRING(F.Comments,CHARINDEX( ':',F.Comments) + 1, (CHARINDEX( '|',F.Comments) - 1) - (CHARINDEX( ':',F.Comments)))

,GetString=SUBSTRING(F.Comments, 0, CHARINDEX( '|',F.Comments) - 1

--put them together

,CASE

WHEN F.Comments IS NULL THEN NULL

WHEN F.Comments LIKE 'File%' THEN SUBSTRING(F.Comments,CHARINDEX( ':',F.Comments) + 1, (CHARINDEX( '|',F.Comments) - 1) - (CHARINDEX( ':',F.Comments)))

ELSE SUBSTRING(F.Comments, 0, CHARINDEX( '|',F.Comments) - 1

END

[font="Courier New"]Looking for a Deadlock Victim Support Group..[/font]

Jeff Moden SSC Guru Points: 1003859 More actions · Answer 2

The_V (10/24/2011)
I am using the following case statement to extract information from a long string with the '|' symbol listed multiple times in the string.
Case
when Len(F.Comments) is null
then Null
when Left(F.Comments,Charindex('|', F.Comments)-1) like 'File Name:%'
then Substring(F.Comments,11,CHARINDEX( '|', F.Comments)-1)
when Left(F.Comments,Charindex('|', F.Comments)-1) like 'File:%'
then Substring(F.Comments,6,CHARINDEX( '|', F.Comments)-1)
when (F.Comments is not Null or Left(F.Comments,Charindex('|', F.Comments,1)-1) not like 'File Name:%'
or Left(F.Comments,Charindex('|', F.Comments)-1) not like 'File:')
then Substring(F.Comments,1,CHARINDEX( '|', F.Comments)-1)
End as Letter_name,
An example of the results are listed below:
ACCT#Letter_name
1BACGENTPN_CF_10202011
2BTPN_09232010 | Vendor:
3BTPN_09232010 | Vendor:
4 BACGENTPN_07152010 | Vendor:
5 BACGENTPN_07152010 | Vendor:
6BACLITTPN_11262010,LMO 0416 Cover Letter|Vendor: S
7BACGENTPN_08312010 | Ven
8BACGENTPN_08312010 | Ven
9BACGENTPN_08312010 | Ven
10BACGENTPN_08312010 | Ven
11BACGENTPN_08312010 | Ven
12BACGENTPN_08312010 | Ven
13BACGENTPN_08312010 | Ven
14 BACBKPTPN_08242010 | Vendor:
15 BACBKPTPN_08242010 | Vendor:
16 BACBKPTPN_09092010 | Vendor:
17 BACBKPTPN_09092010 | Vendor:
18BACGENTPN_09212010 | Vendor:
19BACGENTPN_09212010 | Vendor:
20BACGENTPN_08312010 | Ven
21BACGENTPN_08312010 | Ven
22BTPN_09232010 | Vendor:
23BACBKPTPN_01272011_V2| Vendor:S
24BACBKPTPN_01272011_V2| Vendor:S
25BTPN_09232010 | Vendor:
Row 1 is the ideal Letter_name I want returned. I only want to return the characters before the 1st '|'. I used substring because the words File: and File Name: were at the beginning of some of the strings. Any suggestions?

Could you post the unmodified data for the first 6 lines of results you have above? Please... if there's any private information in the data, just say "No. There's private information in the data" or if you can obfuscate the private info so that you could post the data, that would be handy. Thanks.

--Jeff Moden

RBAR is pronounced "ree-bar" and is a "Modenism" for Row-By-Agonizing-Row.
First step towards the paradigm shift of writing Set Based code:
________Stop thinking about what you want to do to a ROW... think, instead, of what you want to do to a COLUMN.

Change is inevitable... Change for the better is not.

Helpful Links:
How to post code problems
How to Post Performance Problems
Create a Tally Function (fnTally)

The_V Mr or Mrs. 500 Points: 561 More actions · Answer 3

No, I cannot post the unmodified data, it is private. The code and illustration details what is returned. I changed the account numbers which is not significant.

TomThomson SSC Guru Points: 104773 More actions · Answer 4

The_V (10/24/2011)
I am using the following case statement to extract information from a long string with the '|' symbol listed multiple times in the string.
Case
when Len(F.Comments) is null
then Null
when Left(F.Comments,Charindex('|', F.Comments)-1) like 'File Name:%'
then Substring(F.Comments,11,CHARINDEX( '|', F.Comments)-1)
when Left(F.Comments,Charindex('|', F.Comments)-1) like 'File:%'
then Substring(F.Comments,6,CHARINDEX( '|', F.Comments)-1)
when (F.Comments is not Null or Left(F.Comments,Charindex('|', F.Comments,1)-1) not like 'File Name:%'
or Left(F.Comments,Charindex('|', F.Comments)-1) not like 'File:')
then Substring(F.Comments,1,CHARINDEX( '|', F.Comments)-1)
End as Letter_name,
An example of the results are listed below:
ACCT#Letter_name
1BACGENTPN_CF_10202011
2BTPN_09232010 | Vendor:
3BTPN_09232010 | Vendor:
4 BACGENTPN_07152010 | Vendor:
5 BACGENTPN_07152010 | Vendor:
6BACLITTPN_11262010,LMO 0416 Cover Letter|Vendor: S
7BACGENTPN_08312010 | Ven
8BACGENTPN_08312010 | Ven
9BACGENTPN_08312010 | Ven
10BACGENTPN_08312010 | Ven
11BACGENTPN_08312010 | Ven
12BACGENTPN_08312010 | Ven
13BACGENTPN_08312010 | Ven
14 BACBKPTPN_08242010 | Vendor:
15 BACBKPTPN_08242010 | Vendor:
16 BACBKPTPN_09092010 | Vendor:
17 BACBKPTPN_09092010 | Vendor:
18BACGENTPN_09212010 | Vendor:
19BACGENTPN_09212010 | Vendor:
20BACGENTPN_08312010 | Ven
21BACGENTPN_08312010 | Ven
22BTPN_09232010 | Vendor:
23BACBKPTPN_01272011_V2| Vendor:S
24BACBKPTPN_01272011_V2| Vendor:S
25BTPN_09232010 | Vendor:
Row 1 is the ideal Letter_name I want returned. I only want to return the characters before the 1st '|'. I used substring because the words File: and File Name: were at the beginning of some of the strings. Any suggestions?

Try changing

Substring(F.Comments,11,CHARINDEX( '|', F.Comments)-1)

to

Substring(F.Comments,11,CHARINDEX( '|', F.Comments)-11) -- or maybe -12?

and also change

Substring(F.Comments,6,CHARINDEX( '|', F.Comments)-1)

to

Substring(F.Comments,6,CHARINDEX( '|', F.Comments)-7) -- or maybe -6?

The reason is that the third parameter of substring is the number of characters included, not the last wanted position in the original string.

Tom