MariaDB String Functions Guide

This guide goes through several built-in string functions in MariaDB, grouping them by similar features, and providing examples of how they might be used.

This guide explores a variety of MariaDB's built-in string functions essential for effective data manipulation. Learn how to format text for display, extract specific substrings, replace content, and utilize various expression aids to enhance your string operations in SQL queries.

Formatting Strings

Several functions are available for formatting text and numbers for display or processing.

Concatenating Strings:

• CONCAT(str1, str2, ...): Joins two or more strings together.

  SQL

  SELECT CONCAT(name_first, ' ', name_last) AS Name FROM contacts;

  This displays a full name by combining name_first, a space, and name_last.

• CONCAT_WS(separator, str1, str2, ...): Joins strings with a specified separator between each.

  SQL

  SELECT CONCAT_WS('|', col1, col2, col3) FROM table1;

  This creates a pipe-delimited string from col1, col2, and col3.

Formatting Numbers:

• FORMAT(number, decimal_places): Formats a number with commas every three digits and a specified number of decimal places.SQL

  SELECT CONCAT('$', FORMAT(col5, 2)) AS Price FROM table3;

  This prepends a dollar sign to a number formatted with commas and two decimal places (e.g., $100,000.00).

Changing Case:

• UCASE(str) or UPPER(str): Converts a string to all upper-case letters.

• LCASE(str) or LOWER(str): Converts a string to all lower-case letters.SQL

  SELECT UCASE(col1) AS Upper_Col1, LCASE(col2) AS Lower_Col2 FROM table4;

Padding Strings:

• LPAD(str, len, padstr): Left-pads str with padstr until it is len characters long.

• RPAD(str, len, padstr): Right-pads str with padstr until it is len characters long.SQL

  SELECT RPAD(part_nbr, 8, '.') AS 'Part Nbr.', LPAD(description, 15, '_') AS Description FROM catalog;

  Example: RPAD('H200', 8, '.') might produce H200..... LPAD('hinge', 15, '_') might produce __________hinge.

Trimming Strings:

• LTRIM(str): Removes leading spaces.

• RTRIM(str): Removes trailing spaces.

• TRIM([{BOTH | LEADING | TRAILING} [remstr] FROM] str): Removes leading, trailing, or both occurrences of remstr (or spaces if remstr is not given). BOTH is the default if no specifier is given before remstr. If only str is provided, trims leading and trailing spaces.

  SELECT
      TRIM(LEADING '.' FROM col1) AS Trimmed_Leading_Dots,
      TRIM(TRAILING FROM col2) AS Trimmed_Trailing_Spaces, -- Trims spaces
      TRIM(BOTH '_' FROM col3) AS Trimmed_Both_Underscores,
      TRIM(col4) AS Trimmed_Spaces -- Trims leading and trailing spaces
  FROM table5;

Extracting Substrings

These functions help extract specific parts of a string.

• LEFT(str, len): Returns the leftmost len characters from str.

• RIGHT(str, len): Returns the rightmost len characters from str.

  SELECT LEFT(telephone, 3) AS area_code, RIGHT(telephone, 7) AS tel_nbr
  FROM contacts
  ORDER BY area_code;

  This extracts the first 3 characters as area_code and the last 7 as tel_nbr.

• SUBSTRING(str, pos, [len]) or MID(str, pos, [len]): Returns a substring len characters long from str, starting at position pos. MID() is a synonym for SUBSTRING(). If len is omitted, returns the rest of the string from pos.

  SELECT CONCAT('(', LEFT(telephone, 3), ') ',
                SUBSTRING(telephone, 4, 3), '-',
                MID(telephone, 7)) AS 'Telephone Number'
  FROM contacts
  ORDER BY LEFT(telephone, 3);

  This formats a 10-digit phone number like [phone].

Manipulating Strings

Functions for changing or generating strings.

• REPLACE(str, from_str, to_str): Replaces all occurrences of from_str within str with to_str.

  SELECT CONCAT(REPLACE(title, 'Mrs.', 'Ms.'), ' ', name_first, ' ', name_last) AS Name
  FROM contacts;

  This replaces "Mrs." with "Ms." in the title column.

• INSERT(str, pos, len, newstr): Replaces the substring in str starting at pos and len characters long with newstr. If len is 0, newstr is inserted at pos without overwriting.

• LOCATE(substr, str, [pos]): Returns the starting position of the first occurrence of substr within str. An optional pos specifies where to start searching. Returns 0 if substr is not found.

  -- Example: Change 'Mrs.' to 'Ms.' where title is embedded in a 'name' column
  SELECT INSERT(name, LOCATE('Mrs.', name), LENGTH('Mrs.'), 'Ms.')
  FROM contacts
  WHERE name LIKE '%Mrs.%';

  This finds 'Mrs.' in the name string, and replaces it with 'Ms.'. LENGTH('Mrs.') (which is 4) is used for len. If LOCATE() returns 0, INSERT() with a position of 0 typically returns the original string unchanged.

• REVERSE(str): Reverses the characters in str.

  SELECT REVERSE('MariaDB'); -- Output: BDeiraM

• REPEAT(str, count): Repeats str count times.

  SELECT REPEAT('Ha', 3); -- Output: HaHaHa

String Expression Aids

Functions that provide information about strings or assist in specific comparisons/conversions.

• CHAR_LENGTH(str) or CHARACTER_LENGTH(str): Returns the length of str in characters.

  SELECT COUNT(school_id) AS 'Number of Students'
  FROM table8
  WHERE CHAR_LENGTH(school_id) = 8;

  This counts rows where school_id has exactly 8 characters.

• INET_ATON(ip_address_str): Converts an IPv4 address string (e.g., '10.0.1.1') into a numeric representation suitable for numeric sorting.

• INET_NTOA(numeric_ip_representation): Converts the numeric representation back to an IPv4 address string.

  To correctly sort IP addresses numerically instead of lexically:

  SELECT ip_address
  FROM computers
  WHERE server = 'Y'
  ORDER BY INET_ATON(ip_address)
  LIMIT 3;

  Lexical sort of 10.0.1.1, 10.0.11.1, 10.0.2.1 might be 10.0.1.1, 10.0.11.1, 10.0.2.1.

  Numeric sort (using INET_ATON) would correctly be 10.0.1.1, 10.0.2.1, 10.0.11.1.

• STRCMP(str1, str2): Performs a case-sensitive comparison of str1 and str2.

  • Returns 0 if strings are identical.

  • Returns -1 if str1 is alphabetically before str2.

  • Returns 1 if str1 is alphabetically after str2.

  SELECT col1, col2
  FROM table6
  WHERE STRCMP(col3, 'text') = 0; -- Finds exact case-sensitive match for 'text'

• SUBSTRING_INDEX(str, delim, count): Returns a substring from str before or after count occurrences of the delimiter delim.

  • If count is positive, returns everything to the left of the count-th delimiter (from the left).

  • If count is negative, returns everything to the right of the abs(count)-th delimiter (from the right).

  -- Get the first two elements from a pipe-delimited string
  SELECT SUBSTRING_INDEX('elem1|elem2|elem3|elem4', '|', 2); -- Output: elem1|elem2
  
  -- Get the last two elements
  SELECT SUBSTRING_INDEX('elem1|elem2|elem3|elem4', '|', -2); -- Output: elem3|elem4

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