How to replace first and last character of column in sql server?

Question

I have a database column and its give a string like ,Recovery, Pump Exchange,.

I want remove first and last comma from string.

Expected Result :

Answer 1

SELECT LEFT(RIGHT(',Recovery, Pump Exchange,',LEN(',Recovery, Pump Exchange,')-1),LEN(',Recovery, Pump Exchange,')-2)

Answer 2

Alternatively to dasblinkenlight's method you could use replace:

DECLARE @words VARCHAR(50) = ',Recovery, Pump Exchange,'
SELECT REPLACE(','+ @words + ',',',,','')

Answer 3

Try like this:

if(Substring(@mykeyword, 1,1) = ',' and Substring(@mykeyword, LEN(@mykeyword) - 1, LEN(@mykeyword))=',')
SET @mykeyword = Substring(@mykeyword, 2, LEN(@mykeyword) - 2)

Answer 4

This is an old post but I've decided to add my solution as it will remove the first and last commas of a comma separated string without removing the other commas and also will work with strings that don't start with a comma:

DECLARE @words VARCHAR(50) = ',Recovery, Pump Exchange,'
SELECT REPLACE(SUBSTRING(@words , 1, 1),',','') + SUBSTRING(@words, 2, LEN(@words)-2) + REPLACE(SUBSTRING(@words, LEN(@words), 1), ',', '')

Answer 5

You can use SUBSTRING for that:

SELECT
    SUBSTRING(col, 2, LEN(col)-2)
FROM ...

Obviously, an even better approach would be not to put leading and trailing commas there in the first place, if this is an option.

I want to remove last and first comma only if exist otherwise not.

The expression becomes a little more complex, but the idea remains the same:

SELECT SUBSTRING(
    col
,  CASE LEFT(@col,1) WHEN ',' THEN 2 ELSE 1 END
,  LEN(@col) -- Start with the full length
             -- Subtract 1 for comma on the left
      - CASE LEFT(@col,1) WHEN ',' THEN 1 ELSE 0 END 
             -- Subtract 1 for comma on the right
      - CASE RIGHT(@col,1) WHEN ',' THEN 1 ELSE 0 END
)
FROM ...

Answer 6

Using LEN could backfire because LEN ignores trailing spaces. These could be added because of ANSI_PADDING defaulting to ON. So, you'd need RTRIM.

For completeness, I've added LTRIM too...

REVERSE(SUBSTRING(REVERSE(RTRIM(LTRIM(SUBSTRING(MyCol, 2, 8000)))), 2, 8000))