Sql Server: How to remove multiple spaces from a string

Introduction: In this article i am going to explain how to remove all spaces that may be present in the beginning(leading spaces) or at the last(trailing spaces) or in between(middle) of the string. 

In previous articles i explained Sql statement equivalent to ternary/conditional operator 

and Using merge in sql to insert, update and delete in single statement and Using CTE to get all dates between two specified dates and Using CASE statement inside in clause (alternative) and Auto generate autoincremented alphanumeric sequential code in sql

Implementation: Let's take an example:

DECLARE @String AS VARCHAR(100)=' Co m    pu ter    '

To remove spaces from above string we need to use sql server’s inbuilt REPLACE function as:

SELECT REPLACE(@String, ' ', '')

Result will be “Computer” i.e. with no spaces.

Now let's see how to use this with the data stored in table column.

Let's create a table with a column having dummy data with multiple spaces present at the beginning, at the last or in between.

CREATE TABLE #tbData

(

Data VARCHAR(100)

)

GO

INSERT INTO #tbData VALUES ('                    Computer')

INSERT INTO #tbData VALUES ('Computer ')

INSERT INTO #tbData VALUES (' Computer')

INSERT INTO #tbData VALUES ('Comp     uter')

INSERT INTO #tbData VALUES ('Co mpu                ter')

Check table data

GO

SELECT * FROM #tbData

Table data will look like:

Data

Computer

Computer

Computer

Comp     uter

Co mpu                ter

Now Let's write the update query to remove spaces from the data.

UPDATE #tbData SET Data = REPLACE(Data, ' ', '');

Now check table data.

SELECT * FROM #tbData

Data

Computer

Computer

Computer

Computer

Computer

Note: All the spaces are removed from the data.

Now drop temporary table

drop table #tbData

Now over to you:

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