Remove first or last character from string or column in sql server

Introduction: In this article I am going to share how to remove first or last character/letter from string or table column in sql server.

In previous artciles i explained Multiple way to insert multiple records in table in single insert statement and Difference between Temporary Table and Table Variable in Sql Server and Query to count male,female and total employees | Get gender wise employee summary and Multiple queries to get all dates between two dates and SELECT CASE WHEN examples in SQL Server

Description: While working there may be requirement to remove first or last character from string. I have mentioned two ways to get this done: Using Sql inbuilt LEFT and RIGHT or SUBSTRING functions.

Implementation: Let’s write sql queries to demonstrate the concept. 

Remove first character from a string or column using SQL Right Function

Example 1:  Remove first character from a string

DECLARE @str VARCHAR(50)='Computer'

SELECT RIGHT(@str, LEN(@str)-1) AS Result

Query result will be : 

Result

omputer

Example 2: Remove first character from table column. Let’s create a temporary table and insert some data into it.

CREATE TABLE #tbItem

(

                ItemId  INT IDENTITY(1,1) NOT NULL,

                ItemName          VARCHAR(100),

                ItemPrice   DECIMAL(10,2) 

)

INSERT INTO #tbItem values('Soap',24.00),('Tooth Paste', 85.50), ('Hair Oil', 260.00),('Door Mat',300.00)

Now the query to remove first character of all the items present in the table will be as:

SELECT RIGHT(ItemName, LEN(ItemName)-1) AS ItemName,ItemPrice FROM #tbItem

DROP table #tbItem

Query result will be : 

ItemName	ItemPrice
oap	24.00
ooth Paste	85.50
air Oil	260.00
oor Mat	300.00

Remove first character from a string or column using Substring Function

Example 1:  Remove first character from a string

DECLARE @str VARCHAR(50)='Computer'

SELECT SUBSTRING(@str, 2, LEN(@str)-1) AS Result

Query result will be : 

Result

omputer

  

Example 2: Remove first character from table column.

CREATE TABLE #tbItem

(

                ItemId  INT IDENTITY(1,1) NOT NULL,

                ItemName          VARCHAR(100),

                ItemPrice   DECIMAL(10,2) 

)

INSERT INTO #tbItem values('Soap',24.00),('Tooth Paste', 85.50), ('Hair Oil', 260.00),('Door Mat',300.00)

SELECT SUBSTRING(ItemName, 2, LEN(ItemName)-1) AS ItemName,ItemPrice FROM #tbItem

DROP table #tbItem

Query result will be : 

ItemName	ItemPrice
oap	24.00
ooth Paste	85.50
air Oil	260.00
oor Mat	300.00

Remove last character from a string or column using SQL Left Function

Example 1:  Remove last character from a string

DECLARE @str VARCHAR(50)='Computer'

SELECT LEFT(@str, LEN(@str)-1) AS Result

Query result will be : 

Result

Compute

Example 2: Remove last character from table column

CREATE TABLE #tbItem

(

                ItemId  INT IDENTITY(1,1) NOT NULL,

                ItemName          VARCHAR(100),

                ItemPrice   DECIMAL(10,2) 

)

INSERT INTO #tbItem values('Soap',24.00),('Tooth Paste', 85.50), ('Hair Oil', 260.00),('Door Mat',300.00)

SELECT LEFT(ItemName, LEN(ItemName)-1) AS ItemName,ItemPrice FROM #tbItem

DROP table #tbItem

Query result will be : 

ItemName	ItemPrice
Soa	24.00
Tooth Past	85.50
Hair Oi	260.00
Door Ma	300.00

Remove last character from a string or column using Substring Function

Example 1:  Remove last character from a string

DECLARE @str VARCHAR(50)='Computer'

SELECT SUBSTRING(@str, 1, LEN(@str)-1) AS Result

Query result will be : 

Result

Compute

Example 2: Remove last character from table column

CREATE TABLE #tbItem

(

                ItemId  INT IDENTITY(1,1) NOT NULL,

                ItemName          VARCHAR(100),

                ItemPrice   DECIMAL(10,2) 

)

INSERT INTO #tbItem values('Soap',24.00),('Tooth Paste', 85.50), ('Hair Oil', 260.00),('Door Mat',300.00)

SELECT SUBSTRING(ItemName, 1, LEN(ItemName)-1) AS ItemName,ItemPrice FROM #tbItem

DROP table #tbItem

Query result will be : 

ItemName	ItemPrice
Soa	24.00
Tooth Past	85.50
Hair Oi	260.00
Door Ma	300.00

Now over to you:

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