Help with UPDATE

[Guinness Mann]

I have a column in one of my tables that needs to have about half of its
values updated.

The data looks like this:

A\B0andSomeVaryingStuff.mp3

I'd like to update it to:

A\C-B0andSomeVaryingStuff.mp3

The A, \-sign, B, C, .mp3 and - are literals. The
"andSomeVaryingStuff" changes. All I want to do is to replace the \B
with \C-B.

So I need to say "Find the instances where there is an A\B0 and replace
the A\B0 with A\C-B0 leaving the andSomeVaryingStuff.mp3 the same."

Note that every row will not need to be updated -- only the ones where
the column data begins A\B0.

Can you help?

Thank you,

-- Rick

[Jerry Boone]

You could use the REPLACE function.

As a safeguard make a new column on your table and run this statement....

UPDATE mpTable SET myNewColumn = REPLACE(myOriginalColumn, 'A\BO', 'A\C-B0')

If it works good, you may be able to then use "SET myOriginalColumn" and
remove the new column. May need tweaked, but see what happens?

:)

--
Jerry Boone
Analytical Technologies, Inc.
http://www.antech.biz
"Guinness Mann" <GM***@dublin.com> wrote in message
news:MP************************@news.newsguy.com.. .

I have a column in one of my tables that needs to have about half of its
values updated.

The data looks like this:

A\B0andSomeVaryingStuff.mp3

I'd like to update it to:

A\C-B0andSomeVaryingStuff.mp3

The A, \-sign, B, C, .mp3 and - are literals. The
"andSomeVaryingStuff" changes. All I want to do is to replace the \B
with \C-B.

So I need to say "Find the instances where there is an A\B0 and replace
the A\B0 with A\C-B0 leaving the andSomeVaryingStuff.mp3 the same."

Note that every row will not need to be updated -- only the ones where
the column data begins A\B0.

Can you help?

Thank you,

-- Rick

[Guinness Mann]

In article <ug**********************@newssvr30.news.prodigy.c om>,
je***@antech.biz.nospam says...

You could use the REPLACE function.

UPDATE mpTable SET myNewColumn = REPLACE(myOriginalColumn, 'A\BO', 'A\C-B0')

I like it. I'm a little confused, though. Don't I need a WHERE clause?

-- Rick

[Jerry Boone]

No where clause is required unless you want to selectively update certain
data based on column values.

You could do this if you want...

UPDATE mpTable SET myNewColumn = REPLACE(myOriginalColumn, 'A\BO', 'A\C-B0')
Where myOriginalColumn LIKE '%A\BO%'

But if you are making a new column for the modified (replaced) value it will
not show up since the where clause restricts it to only the rows that need
updated. If you are not making a new column, then the where clause would be
great. Another thing... if you want this to run periodically you can setup
a Sql Agent Job to execute this statement as T-SQL and give it a schedule,
or even run when the server is at idle. Of course, the best practice would
be to eliminate the data entry problem when it's entered. But anyway....

--
Jerry Boone
Analytical Technologies, Inc.
http://www.antech.biz
"Jerry Boone" <je***@antech.biz.nospam> wrote in message
news:ug**********************@newssvr30.news.prodi gy.com...

You could use the REPLACE function.

As a safeguard make a new column on your table and run this statement....

UPDATE mpTable SET myNewColumn = REPLACE(myOriginalColumn, 'A\BO', 'A\C-B0')
If it works good, you may be able to then use "SET myOriginalColumn" and
remove the new column. May need tweaked, but see what happens?

:)

--
Jerry Boone
Analytical Technologies, Inc.
http://www.antech.biz
"Guinness Mann" <GM***@dublin.com> wrote in message
news:MP************************@news.newsguy.com.. .

I have a column in one of my tables that needs to have about half of its
values updated.

The data looks like this:

A\B0andSomeVaryingStuff.mp3

I'd like to update it to:

A\C-B0andSomeVaryingStuff.mp3

The A, \-sign, B, C, .mp3 and - are literals. The
"andSomeVaryingStuff" changes. All I want to do is to replace the \B
with \C-B.

So I need to say "Find the instances where there is an A\B0 and replace
the A\B0 with A\C-B0 leaving the andSomeVaryingStuff.mp3 the same."

Note that every row will not need to be updated -- only the ones where
the column data begins A\B0.

Can you help?

Thank you,

-- Rick

[Guinness Mann]

In article <Ht*********************@newssvr11.news.prodigy.co m>,
je***@antech.biz.nospam says...

You could do this if you want...

UPDATE mpTable SET myNewColumn = REPLACE(myOriginalColumn,
'A\BO', 'A\C-B0') Where myOriginalColumn LIKE '%A\BO%'
Thanks, Jerry. It worked great as originally posted. After I posted
the query about WHERE (yuk, yuk) I tried it on a restricted range and it
worked so I updated the data in place. (I have a backup.)

...the best practice would be to eliminate the data entry
problem when it's entered.

Roger that. I found the data entry problem halfway through the entry
process and fixed it then. This is a one-time update to fix the entries
done before I fixed the process.

Thanks again!

-- Rick