STRING FUNCTIONS

STRING FUNCTIONS
Initcap Upper Lower Length
Rpad Lpad Ltrim Rtrim
Trim Translate Replace Soundex
Concat (‘II Concatenation Operation’ Ascii Chr
Substr Instr Decode Greatest
Least Coalesce

 

INITCAP

(This will capitalize the initial letter of the string)

Syntax initcap (string)
Ex SQL> select initcap(‘computer’) from dual;

 

INITCAP

———–

Computer

 

UPPER

(This will convert the string into uppercase)

Syntax upper (string)
Ex SQL> select upper(‘computer’) from dual;

UPPER

———–

COMPUTER

 

      LOWER

(This will convert the string into lowercase)

Syntax lower (string)
Ex SQL> select lower(‘COMPUTER’) from dual;

LOWER

———–

computer

 

LENGTH

 (This will give length of the string)

Syntax  length (string)
Ex SQL> select length(‘computer’) from dual;

LENGTH

———–

8

 

 

RPAD

(This will allows you to pad the right side of a column with any set of characters.)

Syntax rpad (string, length [, padding_char])
Ex SQL> select rpad(‘computer’,15,’*’), rpad(‘computer’,15,’*#’) from dual;

RPAD(‘COMPUTER’  RPAD(‘COMPUTER’

———————-  ———————-

computer*******    computer*#*#*#*

 

— Default padding character was blank space.

 

 

LPAD

(This will allows you to pad the left side of a column with any set of characters)

Syntax lpad (string, length [, padding_char])
Ex SQL> select lpad(‘computer’,15,’*’), lpad(‘computer’,15,’*#’) from dual;

LPAD(‘COMPUTER’  LPAD(‘COMPUTER’

———————   ———————

*******computer   *#*#*#*computer

— Default padding character was blank space.

 

LTRIM

(This will trim off unwanted characters from the left end of string)

Syntax ltrim (string  [,unwanted_chars])
Ex SQL> select ltrim(‘computer’,’co’), ltrim(‘computer’,’com’) from dual;

LTRIM(  LTRIM

——–  ———

mputer   puter

 

SQL> select ltrim(‘computer’,’puter’), ltrim(‘computer’,’omputer’) from dual;

LTRIM(‘C  LTRIM(‘C

———-   ———-

computer   computer

 

— If you haven’t specify any unwanted characters it will display entire string.

 

 

 

 

 

RTRIM

(This will trim off unwanted characters from the right end of string)

Syntax rtrim (string, [ unwanted_chars])
Ex SQL> select rtrim(‘computer’,’er’), rtrim(‘computer’,’ter’) from dual;

RTRIM(  RTRIM

——–  ———

comput   compu

 

SQL> select rtrim(‘computer’,’comput’), rtrim(‘computer’,’compute’) from dual;

 

RTRIM(‘C  RTRIM(‘C

———-   ———-

computer   computer

— If you haven’t specify any unwanted characters it will display entire string.

 

TRIM

(This will trim off unwanted characters from the both sides of string)

Syntax trim (unwanted_chars from string)
Ex SQL> select trim( ‘i’ from ‘indiani’) from dual;

TRIM(

—–

ndian

 

SQL> select trim( leading’i’ from ‘indiani’) from dual; — this will work as LTRIM

TRIM(L

——

ndiani

SQL> select trim( trailing’i’ from ‘indiani’) from dual;       — this will work as RTRIM

TRIM(T

——

Indian

 

TRANSLATE

(This will replace the set of characters, character by character)

Syntax translate (string, old_chars, new_chars)
Ex SQL> select translate(‘india’,’in’,’xy’) from dual;

TRANS

——–

xydxa

 

REPLACE

(This will replace the set of characters, string by string)

Syntax replace (string, old_chars [, new_chars])
Ex SQL> select replace(‘india’,’in’,’xy’), replace(‘india’,’in’) from dual;

 

REPLACE   REPLACE

———–  ———–

Xydia         dia

 

 

SOUNDEX

(This will be used to find words that sound like other words, exclusively used in where clause.)

Syntax soundex (string)
Ex SQL> select * from emp where soundex(ename) = soundex(‘SMIT’);

EMPNO ENAME      JOB              MGR HIREDATE         SAL     DEPTNO

——-  ——–      —–             —–  ————      ——— ———- 7369    SMITH      CLERK         7902   17-DEC-80        500         20

 

 

CONCAT

(This will be used to combine two strings only)

Syntax concat (string1, string2)
Ex SQL> select concat(‘computer’,’ operator’) from dual;

CONCAT(‘COMPUTER’

————————-

computer operator

If you want to combine more than two strings you have to use concatenation operator (||).

SQL> select ‘how’ || ‘ are’ || ‘ you’ from dual;

‘HOW’||’ARE

—————

how are you

 

 

ASCII

(This will return the decimal representation in the database character set of the first

character of the string.)

Syntax ascii (string)
Ex SQL> select ascii(‘a’), ascii(‘apple’) from dual;

ASCII(‘A’)  ASCII(‘APPLE’)

————  ——————

97             97

 

CHR

(This will return the character having the binary equivalent to the string in either the

database character set or the national character set.)

Syntax chr (number)
Ex SQL> select chr(97) from dual;

CHR

—–

a

 

SUBSTR

(This will be used to extract substrings.)

Syntax substr (string, start_chr_count [, no_of_chars])
Ex SQL> select substr(‘computer’,2), substr(‘computer’,2,5),                                           s       substr(‘computer’,3,7) from dual;

SUBSTR(  SUBST  SUBSTR

———-  ——-   ——–

omputer  omput   mputer

 

1     If no_of_chars parameter is negative then it will display nothing.

2     If both parameters except string are null or zeros then it will display nothing.

3     If no_of_chars parameter is greater than the length of the string then it ignores and calculates based on the orginal string length.

4     If start_chr_count is negative then it will extract the substring from right end.

 

1        2        3        4        5        6        7        8

 

C       O       M       P        U       T        E        R

 

-8      -7      -6      -5      -4      -3      -2      -1

 

 

INSTR

(This will allows you for searching through a string for set of characters. )

Syntax This will allows you for searching through a string for set of characters.

This will allows you for searching through a string for set of characters.

Ex SQL> select instr(‘information’,’o’,4,1), instr(‘information’,’o’,4,2) from dual;

INSTR(‘INFORMATION’,’O’,4,1) INSTR(‘INFORMATION’,’O’,4,2)

———————————-  ————————————-

4                                       10

1             If you are not specifying start_chr_count and occurrence then it will start search from the beginning and finds first occurrence only.

2             If both parameters start_chr_count and occurrence are null, it will display nothing.

 

DECODE

(Decode will act as value by value substitution. For every value of field, it will checks for a match in a series of if/then tests. )

Syntax decode (value, if1, then1, if2, then2, ……. else);
Ex SQL> select sal, decode(sal,500,’Low’,5000,’High’,’Medium’) from emp;

SAL     DECODE

—–    ———

500      Low

2500    Medium

2000    Medium

3500    Medium

3000    Medium

5000    High

4000    Medium

5000    High

1800    Medium

1200    Medium

2000    Medium

2700    Medium

2200    Medium

3200    Medium

 

SQL> select decode(1,1,3), decode(1,2,3,4,4,6) from dual;

 

DECODE(1,1,3) DECODE(1,2,3,4,4,6)

—————–  ————————

3                            6

1             If the number of parameters are odd and different then decode will display nothing.

2             If the number of parameters are even and different then decode will display last value.

3             If all the parameters are null then decode will display nothing.

4             If all the parameters are zeros then decode will display zero.

 

 

GREATEST

(This will give the greatest string.)

Syntax greatest (strng1, string2, string3 … stringn)
Ex SQL> select greatest(‘a’, ‘b’, ‘c’), greatest(‘satish’,’srinu’,’saketh’) from dual;

GREAT GREAT

——-  ——-

c      srinu

1.   If all the parameters are nulls then it will display nothing.

2.   If any of the parameters is null it will display nothing.

 

LEAST

(This will give the least string.)

Syntax greatest (strng1, string2, string3 … stringn)
Ex SQL> select least(‘a’, ‘b’, ‘c’), least(‘satish’,’srinu’,’saketh’) from dual;

LEAST LEAST

——-  ——-

a      saketh

1.   If all the parameters are nulls then it will display nothing.

2.   If any of the parameters is null it will display nothing.

 

COALESCE

(This will gives the first non-null string)

Syntax coalesce (strng1, string2, string3 … stringn)
Ex SQL> select coalesce(‘a’,’b’,’c’), coalesce(null,’a’,null,’b’) from dual;

 

COALESCE COALESCE

———–   ———–

a                     a

 

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