Trim all database fields

Question

Do you know if there\'s a quick way in sql server (via transact-sql) that I could trim all the database string fields.

Answer 1

loop over information_schema.columns and RTRIM the varchar/nvarchar columns by creating the update statement dynamically

Answer 2

Just make sure you are doing a trim on VARCHAR string fields, not CHAR fields :)

That wouldn't do much good.

Answer 3

Your question is a bit vague but is this what you are after?

UPDATE mytable SET mycolumn= LTRIM(RTRIM(mycolumn))

That will remove both leading and trailing spaces from all values in the 'mycolumn' column in the 'mytable' table.

Answer 4

OK, that was quick and dirty but i have been sufficiently motivated by a current project to do this 'properly' - and with no cursors either, but a little sql concatenation trick. Does use dynamic sql though:

--exec    spGenerateTrimStatements 'StaticImportMaturities'
ALTER   PROCEDURE       spGenerateTrimStatements
    (
            @TableName NVARCHAR(100)
    )
AS
    DECLARE @Cr char(2),    
                    @OutputString nvarchar(max)

    SELECT  @Cr = CHAR(13) + CHAR(10)
    SET     NOCOUNT ON

    -- Create table to store commands
    CREATE  TABLE   #tOutput(OutputText nvarchar(500), RowID int identity(1,1))

    -- Build up commands
    INSERT  #tOutput(OutputText)
    SELECT  'UPDATE ' + @TableName + ' SET ' 

    INSERT  #tOutput(OutputText)
    SELECT  '[' + Column_Name + '] = ' + 'LTRIM(RTRIM([' + Column_Name + '])), ' 
    FROM    INFORMATION_SCHEMA.Columns 
    WHERE   Table_Name = @TableName 
       AND Data_Type LIKE '%CHAR%' 

    --      Trim last comma
    UPDATE  #tOutput
    SET             OutputText = LEFT(OutputText, LEN(OutputText)-1)
    WHERE   RowID = (SELECT Max(RowID) FROM #tOutput)

    -- use subselect to concatenate the command string
    SELECT  @OutputString = ISNULL(@OutputString, '') + ISNULL(OutputText, '')
    FROM (SELECT OutputText
          FROM    #tOutput) TextOutput

    -- run the command
    EXEC sp_ExecuteSQL @OutputString

Answer 5

Updated the answer of dan to use all tables in the database. Just run the snippet and copy the result to execute.

SELECT 'UPDATE [' + TABLE_SCHEMA + '].[' + TABLE_NAME + '] SET [' + Column_Name + '] = ' + 'LTRIM(RTRIM([' + Column_Name + ']))' 
FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.Columns c
WHERE Data_Type LIKE '%CHAR%'

Answer 6

Thanks guys,

Entaroadun code worked pretty well for me, I just had to do some small changes to my requierements, and also I had to reset @colum_list on each iteration.

...
  PRINT REPLACE(REPLACE(@template, '{@column_list}', @column_list),
                          '{@OBJECT_NAME}', @OBJECT_NAME)
    PRINT 'GO'
    SELECT  @column_list = null
            FETCH NEXT FROM c INTO @OBJECT_NAME
...