String.Format like functionality in T-SQL?

Question

I\'m looking for a built-in function/extended function in T-SQL for string manipulation similar to the String.Format method in .NET.

Answer 1

I have created a user defined function to mimic the string.format functionality. You can use it.

stringformat-in-sql

Answer 2

here's what I found with my experiments using the built-in

FORMATMESSAGE() function

sp_addmessage @msgnum=50001,@severity=1,@msgText='Hello %s you are #%d',@replace='replace'
SELECT FORMATMESSAGE(50001, 'Table1', 5)

when you call up sp_addmessage, your message template gets stored into the system table master.dbo.sysmessages (verified on SQLServer 2000).

You must manage addition and removal of template strings from the table yourself, which is awkward if all you really want is output a quick message to the results screen.

The solution provided by Kathik DV, looks interesting but doesn't work with SQL Server 2000, so i altered it a bit, and this version should work with all versions of SQL Server:

IF OBJECT_ID( N'[dbo].[FormatString]', 'FN' ) IS NOT NULL
    DROP FUNCTION [dbo].[FormatString]
GO
/***************************************************
Object Name : FormatString
Purpose : Returns the formatted string.
Original Author : Karthik D V http://stringformat-in-sql.blogspot.com/
Sample Call:
SELECT dbo.FormatString ( N'Format {0} {1} {2} {0}', N'1,2,3' )
*******************************************/
CREATE FUNCTION [dbo].[FormatString](
@Format NVARCHAR(4000) ,
@Parameters NVARCHAR(4000)
)
RETURNS NVARCHAR(4000)
AS
BEGIN
    --DECLARE @Format NVARCHAR(4000), @Parameters NVARCHAR(4000) select @format='{0}{1}', @Parameters='hello,world'
    DECLARE @Message NVARCHAR(400), @Delimiter CHAR(1)
    DECLARE @ParamTable TABLE ( ID INT IDENTITY(0,1), Parameter VARCHAR(1000) )
    Declare @startPos int, @endPos int
    SELECT @Message = @Format, @Delimiter = ','

    --handle first parameter
     set @endPos=CHARINDEX(@Delimiter,@Parameters)
    if (@endPos=0 and @Parameters is not null) --there is only one parameter
        insert into @ParamTable (Parameter) values(@Parameters)
    else begin
        insert into @ParamTable (Parameter) select substring(@Parameters,0,@endPos)
    end

    while @endPos>0
    Begin
        --insert a row for each parameter in the 
        set @startPos = @endPos + LEN(@Delimiter)
        set @endPos = CHARINDEX(@Delimiter,@Parameters, @startPos)
        if (@endPos>0)
            insert into @ParamTable (Parameter) select substring(@Parameters,@startPos,@endPos)
        else
            insert into @ParamTable (Parameter) select substring(@Parameters,@startPos,4000)            
    End

    UPDATE @ParamTable SET @Message = REPLACE ( @Message, '{'+CONVERT(VARCHAR,ID) + '}', Parameter )
    RETURN @Message
END
Go
    grant execute,references on dbo.formatString to public

Usage:

print dbo.formatString('hello {0}... you are {1}','world,good')
--result: hello world... you are good

Answer 3

this is bad approach. you should work with assembly dll's, in which will do the same for you with better performance.

Answer 4

At the moment this doesn't really exist (although you can of course write your own). There is an open connect bug for it: https://connect.microsoft.com/SQLServer/Feedback/Details/3130221, which as of this writing has just 1 vote.

Answer 5

take a look at xp_sprintf. example below.

DECLARE @ret_string varchar (255)
EXEC xp_sprintf @ret_string OUTPUT, 
    'INSERT INTO %s VALUES (%s, %s)', 'table1', '1', '2'
PRINT @ret_string

Result looks like this:

INSERT INTO table1 VALUES (1, 2)

---

Just found an issue with the max size (255 char limit) of the string with this so there is an alternative function you can use:

create function dbo.fnSprintf (@s varchar(MAX), 
                @params varchar(MAX), @separator char(1) = ',')
returns varchar(MAX)
as
begin
declare @p varchar(MAX)
declare @paramlen int

set @params = @params + @separator
set @paramlen = len(@params)
while not @params = ''
begin
    set @p = left(@params+@separator, charindex(@separator, @params)-1)
    set @s = STUFF(@s, charindex('%s', @s), 2, @p)
    set @params = substring(@params, len(@p)+2, @paramlen)
end
return @s
end

To get the same result as above you call the function as follows:

print dbo.fnSprintf('INSERT INTO %s VALUES (%s, %s)', 'table1,1,2', default)

Answer 6

Here is my version. Can be extended to accommodate more number of parameters and can extend formatting based on type. Currently only date and datetime types are formatted.

Example:

select dbo.FormatString('some string %s some int %s date %s','"abcd"',100,cast(getdate() as date),DEFAULT,DEFAULT)
select dbo.FormatString('some string %s some int %s date time %s','"abcd"',100,getdate(),DEFAULT,DEFAULT)

Output:

some string "abcd" some int 100 date 29-Apr-2017
some string "abcd" some int 100 date time 29-Apr-2017 19:40

Functions:

create function dbo.FormatValue(@param sql_variant)
returns nvarchar(100)
begin
/*
Tejasvi Hegde, 29-April-2017
Can extend formatting here.
*/
    declare @result nvarchar(100)

    if (SQL_VARIANT_PROPERTY(@param,'BaseType') in ('date'))
    begin
       select @result = REPLACE(CONVERT(CHAR(11), @param, 106), ' ', '-')
    end
    else  if (SQL_VARIANT_PROPERTY(@param,'BaseType') in ('datetime','datetime2'))
    begin
       select @result = REPLACE(CONVERT(CHAR(11), @param, 106), ' ', '-')+' '+CONVERT(VARCHAR(5),@param,108)
    end
    else
    begin
       select @result = cast(@param as nvarchar(100))
    end
    return @result

/*
BaseType:
bigint
binary
char
date
datetime
datetime2
datetimeoffset
decimal
float
int
money
nchar
numeric
nvarchar
real
smalldatetime
smallint
smallmoney
time
tinyint
uniqueidentifier
varbinary
varchar
*/   

end;


create function dbo.FormatString(
    @format nvarchar(4000)
    ,@param1 sql_variant = null
    ,@param2 sql_variant = null
    ,@param3 sql_variant = null
    ,@param4 sql_variant = null
    ,@param5 sql_variant = null
    )
returns nvarchar(4000)
begin
/*
Tejasvi Hegde, 29-April-2017

select dbo.FormatString('some string value %s some int %s date %s','"abcd"',100,cast(getdate() as date),DEFAULT,DEFAULT)
select dbo.FormatString('some string value %s some int %s date time %s','"abcd"',100,getdate(),DEFAULT,DEFAULT)
*/

    declare @result nvarchar(4000)

    select @param1 = dbo.formatValue(@param1)
    ,@param2 = dbo.formatValue(@param2)
    ,@param3 = dbo.formatValue(@param3)
    ,@param4 = dbo.formatValue(@param4)
    ,@param5 = dbo.formatValue(@param5)

    select @param2 = cast(@param2 as nvarchar)
    EXEC xp_sprintf @result OUTPUT,@format , @param1, @param2, @param3, @param4, @param5

    return @result

end;