String Functions
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String functions are called so because they typically take strings as inputs and return strings as outputs. But this is not always the case: some functions may take as input or return an integer, so please check the data type constraints carefully.
Unless specified otherwise, all indexes are 1-based. The 0 index is considered to be before the start of the string.
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Function | Definition | Data Type Constraint | |
---|---|---|---|
| Concatenation operator | x, y in {string|CLOB}, return type is string | |
ASCII(x) | Provides ASCII value of the leftmost character in x. If the input is an empty string, the function will return null | return type is integer | |
| Provides the character for ASCII value x 1 | x in {integer} | |
| Concatenates x and y with ANSI semantics. If x and/or y is null, returns null | x, y in {string|CLOB} | |
| Concatenates x and y with non-ANSI null semantics. If x and y is null, returns null. If only x or y is null, returns the other value | x, y in {string|CLOB} | |
| Makes the first letter of each word in string x capital and all others lowercase | x in {string} | |
| Inserts string2 into string1 | str1 in {string}, start in {integer}, length in {integer}, str2 in {string} | |
| Makes x lowercase | x in {string} | |
| Gets left y characters of x | x in {string|CLOB}, y in {integer|CLOB}, return type is string | |
| Gets length of x | return type is integer | |
| Finds position of x in y starting at the beginning of y | x in {string|CLOB}, y in {string|CLOB}, return type is integer | |
| Finds position of x in y starting at z | x in {string|CLOB}, y in {string|CLOB}, z in {integer|CLOB}, return type is integer | |
| Pads input string x with spaces on the left to the length of y | x in {string|CLOB}, y in {integer|CLOB}, return type is string | |
| Pads input string x on the left to the length of y using character z | x in {string|CLOB}, y in {string|CLOB}, z in {character|CLOB}, return type is string | |
| Left trims x of blank chars | x in {string|CLOB}, return type is string | |
| Calculates the MD5 hash of a string. For more information about supported platforms where the function can be pushed down and further details, please refer to MD5 Function | x in {string}, return type is string | |
QUERYSTRING(path [, expr [AS name] ...]) | Returns a properly encoded query string appended to the given path. Null-valued expressions are omitted, and a null path is treated as ''. Names are optional for column reference expressions, e.g.:
| path, expr in {string}, name is an identifier | |
| Repeats string1 the specified number of times | str1 in {string}, instances in {integer}, return type is string | |
| Replaces all y in x with z | x,y,z in {string|clob}, return type is string | |
REGEXP_REPLACE(str, pattern, sub [, flags]) | Replaces one or more occurrences of pattern with sub in str 2 | str, pattern, sub in {string}, return type is string | |
| Gets right y characters of x | x in {string|CLOB}, y in {integer|CLOB}, return type is string | |
| Pads input string x with spaces on the right to the length of y | x in {string|CLOB}, y in {integer|CLOB}, return type is string | |
| Pads input string x on the right to the length of y using character z | x in {string|CLOB}, y in {string|CLOB}, z in {character|CLOB}, return type is string | |
| Right trims x of blank chars | x in {string|CLOB}, return type is string | |
SPLIT_PART(string, delimiter, position)
| Splits a string on the delimiter and returns the given position (counting from one) | string is any type, delimiter is any type, position in {integer, short, byte}, return type is string | |
| Gets substring from x, from position y to the end of x | y in {integer|CLOB} | |
| Gets substring from x from position y with length z | y, z in {integer|CLOB} | |
| Returns a CLOB from the BLOB with the given encoding. BASE64, HEX, and the built-in Java Charset names are valid values for the encoding 3 | x is a BLOB, encoding is a string, return type is CLOB | |
| Returns a BLOB from the CLOB with the given encoding. BASE64, HEX, and the builtin Java Charset names are valid values for the encoding | x in a CLOB, encoding is a string, return type is BLOB | |
| Translates string x by replacing each character in y with the character in z at the same position | x in {string} | |
| Trims the leading, trailing, or both ends of a string y of character x. If | x in {character|CLOB}, y in {string|CLOB} | |
| Makes x uppercase | x in {string} | |
| Unescaped version of x. Possible escape sequences are \b - backspace, \t - tab, \n - line feed, \f - form feed, \r - carriage return. \uXXXX, where X is a hex value, can be used to specify any Unicode character. \XXX, where X is an octal digit, can be used to specify an octal byte value. If any other character appears after an escape character, that character will appear in the output, and the escape character will be ignored | x in {string|CLOB} | |
URLENCODE(x, encoding) | Converts a string (or a CLOB) to the
| x in {string |CLOB}, encoding is a string, return type is string (or a CLOB) | |
URLDECODE(x, encoding) | Decodes a string from the
| x in {string |CLOB}, encoding is a string, return type is string (or a CLOB) | |
UUID() | Returns a universally unique identifier. Generates a type 4 (pseudo-randomly generated) UUID using a cryptographically strong random number generator. The format is XXXXXXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXXXXXXXXXX, where each X is a hex digit | no input value; return type is string |
Special Note on CHR(x) CHAR(x)
Non-ASCII range characters or integers used in these functions may produce different results or exceptions depending on where the function is evaluated (the Data Virtuality Server vs source). The Data Virtuality Server uses Java-default int to char and char to int conversions, which operate over UTF16 values.
Special Note on REGEXP_REPLACE(str, pattern, sub [, flags])
The pattern parameter is expected to be a valid Java Regular Expression.
The flags argument can be any concatenation of any of the valid flags with the following meanings:
Flag | Name | Meaning |
---|---|---|
g | global | Replace all occurrences, not just the first |
m | multiline | Match over multiple lines |
i | case insensitive | Match without case sensitivity |
Special Note on TO_CHARS(x, encoding)
Please consult the Class Charset section of Java documentation for more on supported Charset names. For charsets, un-mappable chars will be replaced with the charset default character. Conversion of binary formats, such as Base64, to bytes will result in an error as an unrecognizable character is encountered.
Encoding a String Using TO_CHARS
If you need to encode a string in Base64, you can use this snippet:
SELECT to_chars(to_bytes('Plaintext string', 'UTF-8'), 'base64' );;