Reformatting string and character data

Functions for Manipulating Data in PostgreSQL

Brian Piccolo

Sr. Director, Digital Strategy

Topics

Reformatting string and character data.
Parsing string and character data.
Determine string length and character position.
Truncating and padding string data.

The string concatenation operator

SELECT 
  first_name,
  last_name,
  first_name || ' ' || last_name AS full_name
FROM customer

+------------+-----------+-------------------+
| first_name | last_name | full_name         |
|------------|-----------|-------------------|
| MARY       | SMITH     | MARY SMITH        |
| LINDA      | WILLIAMS  | LINDA WILLIAMS    |
+------------+-----------+-------------------+

String concatenation with functions

SELECT 
  CONCAT(first_name,' ', last_name) AS full_name
FROM customer;

+--------------------------------------------+
| first_name | last_name | full_name         |
|--------------------------------------------|
| MARY       | SMITH     | MARY SMITH        |
| LINDA      | WILLIAMS  | LINDA WILLIAMS    |
+--------------------------------------------+

String concatenation with a non-string input

SELECT 
  customer_id || ': ' 
  || first_name || ' ' 
  || last_name AS full_name
FROM customer;

+-------------------+
| full_name         |
|-------------------|
| 1: MARY SMITH     |
| 2: LINDA WILLIAMS |
+-------------------+

Changing the case of string

SELECT 
  UPPER(email) 
FROM customer;

+-------------------------------------+
| UPPER(email)                        |
|-------------------------------------|
| [email protected]       |
| [email protected] |
| [email protected]   |
+-------------------------------------+

Changing the case of string

SELECT 
  LOWER(title) 
FROM film;

+-------------------+
| LOWER(title)      |
|-------------------|
| academy dinosaur  | 
| ace goldfinger    |
| adaptation holes  |
+-------------------+

Changing the case of string

SELECT 
  INITCAP(title) 
FROM film;

+-------------------+
| INITCAP(title)    |
|-------------------|
| Academy Dinosaur  | 
| Ace Goldfinger    |
| Adaptation Holes  |
+-------------------+

Replacing characters in a string

SELECT description FROM film;

+---------------------------------------------------------+
| description                                             |
|---------------------------------------------------------|
| A Epic Drama of a Feminist And a Mad Scientist...       |
| A Astounding Epistle of a Database Administrator...     |
| A Astounding Reflection of a Lumberjack And a Car...    |
| A Fanciful Documentary of a Frisbee And a Lumberjack... |
| A Fast-Paced Documentary of a Pastry Chef And a...      |
+---------------------------------------------------------+

Replacing characters in a string

SELECT 
    REPLACE(description, 'A Astounding', 
              'An Astounding') as description 
FROM film;

+---------------------------------------------------------+
| description                                             |
|---------------------------------------------------------|
| A Epic Drama of a Feminist And a Mad Scientist...       |
| An Astounding Epistle of a Database Administrator...    |
| An Astounding Reflection of a Lumberjack And a Car...   |
+---------------------------------------------------------+

Manipulating string data with REVERSE

SELECT 
  title, 
  REVERSE(title) 
FROM 
  film AS f;

+-------------------------------------+
| title            | reverse(title)   |
|-------------------------------------|
| ACADEMY DINOSAUR | RUASONID YMEDACA |
| ACE GOLDFINGER   | REGNIFDLOG ECA   |
+-------------------------------------+

Let's practice!

Functions for Manipulating Data in PostgreSQL