UPDATE and REPLACE part of a string

Question

I've got a table with two columns, ID and Value. I want to change a part of some strings in the second column.

Example of Table:

ID            Value

---------------------------------

1             c:\temp\123\abc\111

2             c:\temp\123\abc\222

3             c:\temp\123\abc\333

4             c:\temp\123\abc\444

Now the 123\ in the Value string is not needed. I tried UPDATE and REPLACE:

UPDATE dbo.xxx

SET Value = REPLACE(Value, '%123%', '')

WHERE ID <= 4

When I execute the script SQL Server does not report an error, but it does not update anything either. Why is that?

Answer 1

Avoid using the wildcards in the REPLACE – As it only finds the string you enter for the second argument.

 So, use the below code:

UPDATE dbo.xxx

SET Value = REPLACE(value, '231\', '')

WHERE ID <=4

(You need to add the \ in the replace as I assume you don't need to do that either)