Finding Uppercase Character then Adding Space

Question

I bought a SQL World City/State database. In the state database it has the state names pushed together. Example: \"NorthCarolina\", or \"SouthCarolina\"...

IS there

Answer 1

Create this function

if object_id('dbo.SpaceBeforeCaps') is not null
    drop function dbo.SpaceBeforeCaps
GO
create function dbo.SpaceBeforeCaps(@s varchar(100)) returns varchar(100)
as
begin
    declare @return varchar(100);
    set @return = left(@s,1);
    declare @i int;
    set @i = 2;
    while @i <= len(@s)
    begin
        if ASCII(substring(@s,@i,1)) between ASCII('A') and ASCII('Z')
            set @return = @return + ' ' + substring(@s,@i,1)
        else
            set @return = @return + substring(@s,@i,1)
        set @i = @i + 1;
    end;
    return @return;
end;
GO

Then you can use it to update your database

update tbl set statename = select dbo.SpaceBeforeCaps(statename);

Answer 2

There's a couple ways to approach this

1. Construct a function using a pattern and the PATINDEX feature.

2. Chain minimal REPLACE statements for each case (e.g. REPLACE(state_name, 'hC', 'h C' for your example case). This seems is kind of a hack, but might actually give you the best performance, since you have such a small set of replacements.

Answer 3

If you absolutely cannot create functions and need this as a one-off, you can use a recursive CTE to break the string up (and add the space at the same time where required), then recombine the characters using FOR XML. Elaborate example below:

-- some sample data
create table #tmp (id int identity primary key, statename varchar(100));
insert #tmp select 'NorthCarolina';
insert #tmp select 'SouthCarolina';
insert #tmp select 'NewSouthWales';

-- the complex query updating the "statename" column in the "#tmp" table
;with cte(id,seq,char,rest) as (
    select id,1,cast(left(statename,1) as varchar(2)), stuff(statename,1,1,'')
      from #tmp
     union all
    select id,seq+1,case when ascii(left(rest,1)) between ascii('A') and ascii('Z')
                         then ' ' else '' end + left(rest,1)
         , stuff(rest,1,1,'')
      from cte
     where rest > ''
), recombined as (
  select a.id, (select b.char+''
                  from cte b
                 where a.id = b.id
              order by b.seq
                   for xml path, type).value('/','varchar(100)') fixed
    from cte a
group by a.id
)
update t
   set statename = c.fixed
  from #tmp t
  join recombined c on c.id = t.id
 where statename != c.fixed;

-- check the result
select * from #tmp

----------- -----------
id          statename
----------- -----------
1           North Carolina
2           South Carolina
3           New South Wales