How to strip all non-alphabetic characters from string in SQL Server?

Question

How could you remove all characters that are not alphabetic from a string?

What about non-alphanumeric?

Does this have to be a custom function or are there

Answer 1

--First create one function

CREATE FUNCTION [dbo].[GetNumericonly]
(@strAlphaNumeric VARCHAR(256))
RETURNS VARCHAR(256)
AS
BEGIN
     DECLARE @intAlpha INT
     SET @intAlpha = PATINDEX('%[^0-9]%', @strAlphaNumeric)
BEGIN
     WHILE @intAlpha > 0
   BEGIN
          SET @strAlphaNumeric = STUFF(@strAlphaNumeric, @intAlpha, 1, '' )
          SET @intAlpha = PATINDEX('%[^0-9]%', @strAlphaNumeric )
   END
END
RETURN ISNULL(@strAlphaNumeric,0)
END

Now call this function like

select [dbo].[GetNumericonly]('Abhi12shek23jaiswal')

Its result like

1223

Answer 2

Try this function:

Create Function [dbo].[RemoveNonAlphaCharacters](@Temp VarChar(1000))
Returns VarChar(1000)
AS
Begin

    Declare @KeepValues as varchar(50)
    Set @KeepValues = '%[^a-z]%'
    While PatIndex(@KeepValues, @Temp) > 0
        Set @Temp = Stuff(@Temp, PatIndex(@KeepValues, @Temp), 1, '')

    Return @Temp
End

Call it like this:

Select dbo.RemoveNonAlphaCharacters('abc1234def5678ghi90jkl')

Once you understand the code, you should see that it is relatively simple to change it to remove other characters, too. You could even make this dynamic enough to pass in your search pattern.

Hope it helps.

Answer 3

DECLARE @vchVAlue NVARCHAR(255) = 'SWP, Lettering Position 1: 4 Ω, 2: 8 Ω, 3: 16 Ω, 4:  , 5:  , 6:  , Voltage Selector, Solder, 6, Step switch, : w/o fuseholder '


WHILE PATINDEX('%?%' , CAST(@vchVAlue AS VARCHAR(255))) > 0
  BEGIN
    SELECT @vchVAlue = STUFF(@vchVAlue,PATINDEX('%?%' , CAST(@vchVAlue AS VARCHAR(255))),1,' ')
  END 

SELECT @vchVAlue

Answer 4

From performance perspective I'd use Inline Function:

SET ANSI_NULLS ON
GO
SET QUOTED_IDENTIFIER ON
GO
CREATE FUNCTION [dbo].[udf_RemoveNumericCharsFromString]
(
@List NVARCHAR(4000)
)
RETURNS TABLE 
AS RETURN

    WITH GetNums AS (
       SELECT TOP(ISNULL(DATALENGTH(@List), 0))
        n = ROW_NUMBER() OVER(ORDER BY (SELECT NULL))
        FROM
          (VALUES (0),(0),(0),(0)) d (n),
          (VALUES (0),(0),(0),(0),(0),(0),(0),(0),(0),(0)) e (n),
          (VALUES (0),(0),(0),(0),(0),(0),(0),(0),(0),(0)) f (n),
          (VALUES (0),(0),(0),(0),(0),(0),(0),(0),(0),(0)) g (n)
            )

    SELECT StrOut = ''+
        (SELECT Chr
         FROM GetNums
            CROSS APPLY (SELECT SUBSTRING(@List , n,1)) X(Chr)
         WHERE Chr LIKE '%[^0-9]%' 
         ORDER BY N
         FOR XML PATH (''),TYPE).value('.','NVARCHAR(MAX)')


   /*How to Use
   SELECT StrOut FROM dbo.udf_RemoveNumericCharsFromString ('vv45--9gut')
   Result: vv--gut
   */

Answer 5

Parameterized version of G Mastros' awesome answer:

CREATE FUNCTION [dbo].[fn_StripCharacters]
(
    @String NVARCHAR(MAX), 
    @MatchExpression VARCHAR(255)
)
RETURNS NVARCHAR(MAX)
AS
BEGIN
    SET @MatchExpression =  '%['+@MatchExpression+']%'

    WHILE PatIndex(@MatchExpression, @String) > 0
        SET @String = Stuff(@String, PatIndex(@MatchExpression, @String), 1, '')

    RETURN @String

END

Alphabetic only:

SELECT dbo.fn_StripCharacters('a1!s2@d3#f4$', '^a-z')

Numeric only:

SELECT dbo.fn_StripCharacters('a1!s2@d3#f4$', '^0-9')

Alphanumeric only:

SELECT dbo.fn_StripCharacters('a1!s2@d3#f4$', '^a-z0-9')

Non-alphanumeric:

SELECT dbo.fn_StripCharacters('a1!s2@d3#f4$', 'a-z0-9')

Answer 6

Here is another way to remove non-alphabetic characters using an iTVF. First, you need a pattern-based string splitter. Here is one taken from Dwain Camp's article:

-- PatternSplitCM will split a string based on a pattern of the form 
-- supported by LIKE and PATINDEX 
-- 
-- Created by: Chris Morris 12-Oct-2012 
CREATE FUNCTION [dbo].[PatternSplitCM]
(
       @List                VARCHAR(8000) = NULL
       ,@Pattern            VARCHAR(50)
) RETURNS TABLE WITH SCHEMABINDING 
AS 

RETURN
    WITH numbers AS (
        SELECT TOP(ISNULL(DATALENGTH(@List), 0))
            n = ROW_NUMBER() OVER(ORDER BY (SELECT NULL))
        FROM
        (VALUES (0),(0),(0),(0),(0),(0),(0),(0),(0),(0)) d (n),
        (VALUES (0),(0),(0),(0),(0),(0),(0),(0),(0),(0)) e (n),
        (VALUES (0),(0),(0),(0),(0),(0),(0),(0),(0),(0)) f (n),
        (VALUES (0),(0),(0),(0),(0),(0),(0),(0),(0),(0)) g (n)
    )

    SELECT
        ItemNumber = ROW_NUMBER() OVER(ORDER BY MIN(n)),
        Item = SUBSTRING(@List,MIN(n),1+MAX(n)-MIN(n)),
        [Matched]
    FROM (
        SELECT n, y.[Matched], Grouper = n - ROW_NUMBER() OVER(ORDER BY y.[Matched],n)
        FROM numbers
        CROSS APPLY (
            SELECT [Matched] = CASE WHEN SUBSTRING(@List,n,1) LIKE @Pattern THEN 1 ELSE 0 END
        ) y
    ) d
    GROUP BY [Matched], Grouper

Now that you have a pattern-based splitter, you need to split the strings that match the pattern:

[a-z]

and then concatenate them back to get the desired result:

SELECT *
FROM tbl t
CROSS APPLY(
    SELECT Item + ''
    FROM dbo.PatternSplitCM(t.str, '[a-z]')
    WHERE Matched = 1
    ORDER BY ItemNumber
    FOR XML PATH('')
) x (a)

---

SAMPLE

Result:

| Id |              str |              a |
|----|------------------|----------------|
|  1 |    test“te d'abc |     testtedabc |
|  2 |            anr¤a |           anra |
|  3 |  gs-re-C“te d'ab |     gsreCtedab |
|  4 |         M‚fe, DF |          MfeDF |
|  5 |           R™temd |          Rtemd |
|  6 |          ™jad”ji |          jadji |
|  7 |      Cje y ret¢n |       Cjeyretn |
|  8 |        J™kl™balu |        Jklbalu |
|  9 |       le“ne-iokd |       leneiokd |
| 10 |   liode-Pyr‚n‚ie |    liodePyrnie |
| 11 |         V„s G”ta |          VsGta |
| 12 |        Sƒo Paulo |        SoPaulo |
| 13 |  vAstra gAtaland | vAstragAtaland |
| 14 |  ¥uble / Bio-Bio |     ubleBioBio |
| 15 | U“pl™n/ds VAsb-y |    UplndsVAsby |