How to count instances of character in SQL Column

Question

I have an sql column that is a string of 100 \'Y\' or \'N\' characters. For example:

YYNYNYYNNNYYNY...

What is the easiest way

Answer 1

This will return number of occurance of N

select ColumnName, LEN(ColumnName)- LEN(REPLACE(ColumnName, 'N', '')) from Table

Answer 2

for example to calculate the count instances of character (a) in SQL Column ->name is column name '' ( and in doblequote's is empty i am replace a with nocharecter @'')

select len(name)- len(replace(name,'a','')) from TESTING

select len('YYNYNYYNNNYYNY')- len(replace('YYNYNYYNNNYYNY','y',''))

Answer 3

This gave me accurate results every time...

This is in my Stripes field...

Yellow, Yellow, Yellow, Yellow, Yellow, Yellow, Black, Yellow, Yellow, Red, Yellow, Yellow, Yellow, Black

• 11 Yellows
• 2 Black
• 1 Red

SELECT (LEN(Stripes) - LEN(REPLACE(Stripes, 'Red', ''))) / LEN('Red') 
  FROM t_Contacts

Answer 4

Below solution help to find out no of character present from a string with a limitation:

1) using SELECT LEN(REPLACE(myColumn, 'N', '')), but limitation and wrong output in below condition:

SELECT LEN(REPLACE('YYNYNYYNNNYYNY', 'N', ''));
--8 --Correct

SELECT LEN(REPLACE('123a123a12', 'a', ''));
--8 --Wrong

SELECT LEN(REPLACE('123a123a12', '1', ''));
--7 --Wrong

2) Try with below solution for correct output:

• Create a function and also modify as per requirement.
• And call function as per below

select dbo.vj_count_char_from_string('123a123a12','2');
--2 --Correct

select dbo.vj_count_char_from_string('123a123a12','a');
--2 --Correct

-- ================================================
SET ANSI_NULLS ON
GO
SET QUOTED_IDENTIFIER ON
GO
-- =============================================
-- Author:      VIKRAM JAIN
-- Create date: 20 MARCH 2019
-- Description: Count char from string
-- =============================================
create FUNCTION vj_count_char_from_string
(
    @string nvarchar(500),
    @find_char char(1)  
)
RETURNS integer
AS
BEGIN
    -- Declare the return variable here
    DECLARE @total_char int; DECLARE @position INT;
    SET @total_char=0; set @position = 1;

    -- Add the T-SQL statements to compute the return value here
    if LEN(@string)>0
    BEGIN
        WHILE @position <= LEN(@string) -1
        BEGIN
            if SUBSTRING(@string, @position, 1) = @find_char
            BEGIN
                SET @total_char+= 1;
            END
            SET @position+= 1;
        END
    END;

    -- Return the result of the function
    RETURN @total_char;

END
GO

Answer 5

If you need to count the char in a string with more then 2 kinds of chars, you can use instead of 'n' - some operator or regex of the chars accept the char you need.

SELECT LEN(REPLACE(col, 'N', ''))

Answer 6

DECLARE @StringToFind VARCHAR(100) = "Text To Count"

SELECT (LEN([Field To Search]) - LEN(REPLACE([Field To Search],@StringToFind,'')))/COALESCE(NULLIF(LEN(@StringToFind), 0), 1) --protect division from zero
FROM [Table To Search]