By: carlosdl

carlosdl — Tue, 26 May 2009 18:42:35 +0000

Assuming that you are using SQL Server, you could use the SUBSTRING and CHARINDEX functions. Something like this:

SELECT SUBSTRING(your_column,CHARINDEX('*',your_column),1) has_asterisk,
SUBSTRING(your_column,CHARINDEX('*',your_column)+1,LEN(your_column)) number FROM book;

If you are using Oracle, you should use SUBSTR and INSTR instead.

By: lazy167

lazy167 — Tue, 26 May 2009 14:49:41 +0000

Thanks works great!
On another note, is there a way to split the column into 2 so that 1 column shows whether that number has a * prefix or not?
eg
* |99 * |12 null |23 * | 68 * | 48 null | 89 null | 13

Comments on: SQL update a column to remove a certain character

By: carlosdl

By: lazy167