Remove all spaces from a string in SQL Server

Question

What is the best way to remove all spaces from a string in SQL Server 2008?

LTRIM(RTRIM(\' a b \')) would remove all spaces at the right and left of th

Answer 1

I would use a REPLACE

select REPLACE (' Hello , How Are You ?', ' ', '' )

REPLACE

Answer 2

Just a tip, in case you are having trouble with the replace function, you might have the datatype set to nchar (in which case it is a fixed length and it will not work).

Answer 3

To make all of the answers above complete, there are additional posts on StackOverflow on how to deal with ALL whitespace characters (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitespace_character for a full list of these characters):

• TSQL 2008 Using LTrim(RTrim and still have spaces in the data
• How do I remove non-breaking spaces from a column in SQL server?
• What's a good way to trim all whitespace characters from a string in T-SQL without UDF and without CLR?

Answer 4

Simply replace it;

SELECT REPLACE(fld_or_variable, ' ', '')

Edit: Just to clarify; its a global replace, there is no need to trim() or worry about multiple spaces for either char or varchar:

create table #t (
    c char(8),
    v varchar(8))

insert #t (c, v) values 
    ('a a'    , 'a a'    ),
    ('a a  '  , 'a a  '  ),
    ('  a a'  , '  a a'  ),
    ('  a a  ', '  a a  ')

select
    '"' + c + '"' [IN], '"' + replace(c, ' ', '') + '"' [OUT]
from #t  
union all select
    '"' + v + '"', '"' + replace(v, ' ', '') + '"'
from #t 

Result

IN             OUT
===================
"a a     "     "aa"
"a a     "     "aa"
"  a a   "     "aa"
"  a a   "     "aa"
"a a"          "aa"
"a a  "        "aa"
"  a a"        "aa"
"  a a  "      "aa"

Answer 5

Check and Try the below script (Unit Tested)-

--Declaring
DECLARE @Tbl TABLE(col_1 VARCHAR(100));

--Test Samples
INSERT INTO @Tbl (col_1)
VALUES
('  EY     y            
Salem')
, ('  EY     P    ort       Chennai   ')
, ('  EY     Old           Park   ')
, ('  EY   ')
, ('  EY   ')
,(''),(null),('d                           
    f');

SELECT col_1 AS INPUT,
    LTRIM(RTRIM(
    REPLACE(
    REPLACE(
    REPLACE(
    REPLACE(
    REPLACE(
        REPLACE(
        REPLACE(
        REPLACE(
        REPLACE(
        REPLACE(
        REPLACE(col_1,CHAR(10),' ')
        ,CHAR(11),' ')
        ,CHAR(12),' ')
        ,CHAR(13),' ')
        ,CHAR(14),' ')
        ,CHAR(160),' ')
        ,CHAR(13)+CHAR(10),' ')
    ,CHAR(9),' ')
    ,' ',CHAR(17)+CHAR(18))
    ,CHAR(18)+CHAR(17),'')
    ,CHAR(17)+CHAR(18),' ')
    )) AS [OUTPUT]
FROM @Tbl;

Answer 6

this is useful for me:

CREATE FUNCTION dbo.TRIM(@String VARCHAR(MAX))
RETURNS VARCHAR(MAX)
BEGIN
    RETURN LTRIM(RTRIM(REPLACE(REPLACE(REPLACE(REPLACE(REPLACE(REPLACE(@String,CHAR(10),'[]'),CHAR(13),'[]'),char(9),'[]'),CHAR(32),'[]'),'][',''),'[]',CHAR(32))));
END
GO

.