Adding alphabet to a number to make it unique

  • create table #temp_Alpha_num (

    [uniquenum] [int] Not NULL,

    [Somenum] [int] Not NULL,

    )

    Insert into #temp_Alpha_num(uniquenum,Somenum)

    values

    (1,121)

    Insert into #temp_Alpha_num(uniquenum,Somenum)

    values

    (2,121)

    Insert into #temp_Alpha_num(uniquenum,Somenum)

    values (3,121)

    Insert into #temp_Alpha_num(uniquenum,Somenum)

    values (4,121)

    Insert into #temp_Alpha_num(uniquenum,Somenum)

    values (5,121)

    Insert into #temp_Alpha_num(uniquenum,Somenum)

    values (6,121)

    Insert into #temp_Alpha_num(uniquenum,Somenum)

    values (7,121)

    Insert into #temp_Alpha_num(uniquenum,Somenum)

    values(8,121)

    Insert into #temp_Alpha_num(uniquenum,Somenum)

    values (9,121)

    Insert into #temp_Alpha_num(uniquenum,Somenum)

    values (10,121)

    Insert into #temp_Alpha_num(uniquenum,Somenum)

    values (11,121)

    Insert into #temp_Alpha_num(uniquenum,Somenum)

    values (12,121)

    Insert into #temp_Alpha_num(uniquenum,Somenum)

    values (13,121)

    Insert into #temp_Alpha_num(uniquenum,Somenum)

    values (14,121)

    Insert into #temp_Alpha_num(uniquenum,Somenum)

    values (15,121)

    Insert into #temp_Alpha_num(uniquenum,Somenum)

    values (16,121)

    Insert into #temp_Alpha_num(uniquenum,Somenum)

    values (17,121)

    Insert into #temp_Alpha_num(uniquenum,Somenum)

    values (18,121)

    Insert into #temp_Alpha_num(uniquenum,Somenum)

    values (19,121)

    Insert into #temp_Alpha_num(uniquenum,Somenum)

    values (20,121)

    Insert into #temp_Alpha_num(uniquenum,Somenum)

    values (21,121)

    Insert into #temp_Alpha_num(uniquenum,Somenum)

    values (22,121)

    Insert into #temp_Alpha_num(uniquenum,Somenum)

    values (23,101)

    Insert into #temp_Alpha_num(uniquenum,Somenum)

    values (24,101)

    Insert into #temp_Alpha_num(uniquenum,Somenum)

    values (25,101)

    Insert into #temp_Alpha_num(uniquenum,Somenum)

    values (26,101)

    Insert into #temp_Alpha_num(uniquenum,Somenum)

    values (27,101)

    Insert into #temp_Alpha_num(uniquenum,Somenum)

    values (28,101)

    Insert into #temp_Alpha_num(uniquenum,Somenum)

    values (29,101)

    Insert into #temp_Alpha_num(uniquenum,Somenum)

    values (30,101)

    Insert into #temp_Alpha_num(uniquenum,Somenum)

    values (31,101)

    Insert into #temp_Alpha_num(uniquenum,Somenum)

    values (32,101)

    for the somenum column I need to add alphabets to make them unique. for example 121a,121b,121c....121z,121aa,121ab,101a and so on...

    Could you guys please help. I dont know where to start..

  • You mean something like this?:

    SELECT UniqueNum

    ,Somenum

    , CHAR(ROW_NUMBER() OVER (PARTITION BY SomeNum ORDER BY UniqueNum ASC)+64) AS LetterSuffix

    FROM #temp_Alpha_num

    ORDER BY uniquenum,Somenum ASC;

    so that when you get 121A to 121F and then maybe 101A to 101X or similar?

  • What happens when you get to 4 letter combinations?

    Could get nasty! 😛


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  • once the somenum exceeds the alphabet range it should be aa ab ac ad .but this code gives me other characters ([,],$,^,(,),)..

  • gavva.sravan (11/26/2013)


    once the somenum exceeds the alphabet range it should be aa ab ac ad .but this code gives me other characters ([,],$,^,(,),)..

    That is because this is a bad idea. Once you start "auto incrementing" characters you open up a whole possibility of bad things. What happens when you start getting into 3 and 4 letter words?

    You already have a unique value per row. Why can't you use that? Or if you really need to use somenum why not cast it to a varchar add an underscore and then use row_number?

    Something like this maybe?

    select uniquenum, Somenum, CAST(Somenum varchar(10)) + '_' + cast(Suffix as varchar(5)) as SomeNum_PlusRowNum

    from

    (

    SELECT UniqueNum

    ,Somenum

    , ROW_NUMBER() OVER (PARTITION BY SomeNum ORDER BY UniqueNum ASC) AS Suffix

    FROM #temp_Alpha_num

    )

    ORDER BY uniquenum, Somenum ASC;

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