Question

Data in the file_name field of the generation table should be an assigned number, then _01, _02, or _03, etc. and then .pdf (example 82617_01.pdf).

Somewhere, the program is putting a state name and sometimes a date/time stamp, between the assigned number and the 01, 02, etc. (82617_ALABAMA_01.pdf or 19998_MAINE_07-31-2010_11-05-59_AM.pdf or 5485325_OREGON_01.pdf for example).

We would like to develop a SQL statement to find the bad file names and fix them. In theory it seems rather simple to find file names that include a varchar2 data type and remove it, but putting the statement together is beyond me.

Any help or suggestions appreciated.

Something like:

UPDATE GENERATION

SET FILE_NAME (?)

WHERE FILE_NAME (?...LIKE '%STRING%');?

Answer 1

You can find the problem rows like this:

select *
from Files
where length(FILE_NAME) - length(replace(FILE_NAME, '_', '')) > 1

You can fix them like this:

update Files
set FILE_NAME = SUBSTR(FILE_NAME, 1, instr(FILE_NAME, '_') -1) ||
    SUBSTR(FILE_NAME, instr(FILE_NAME, '_', 1, 2))
where length(FILE_NAME) - length(replace(FILE_NAME, '_', '')) > 1

SQL Fiddle Example