Question

I am trying to find if a string exist in a word and extract it. I have uses the instr() function but this works as the LIKE function: if part or the whole word exists it returns it.

Here I want to get the string ‘Services’ out, it works but if I change ‘Services’ to ‘Service’ it still works. I don’t want that. If ‘Service’ is entered it should return null and not ‘Services’

Modified:

What I am trying to do here is abbreviate certain parts of the company name.

This is what my database table looks like :

Word     | Abb
---------+-----  
Company  | com
Limited  | ltd
Service  | serv
Services | servs

Here is the code:

Declare 

    Cursor Words Is

    SELECT word,abb
    FROM abbWords


    processingWord VARCHAR2(50);
    abbreviatedName VARCHAR(120);
    fullName = 'A.D Company Services Limited';

BEGIN

    FOR eachWord IN Words LOOP


      --find the position of the word in name
       wordPosition := INSTR(fullName, eachWord.word);

       --extracts the word form the full name that matches the database
       processingWord := Substr(fullName,instr(fullName,eachWord.word), length(eachWord.word));

      --only process words that exist in name
      if wordPosition > 0 then
           abbreviatedName = replace(fullName, eachWord.word,eachWord.abb);
       end if;

    END lOOP;

END;

So if the user enters ‘Service’ I don’t want ‘Services’ to be returned. By this I mean word position should be 0 if the word ‘Service’ in not found instead of returning the position for the word ‘Services’

Answer 1

Another alternative is to use something like:

select replace(name,' serv ', ' Services ')
from names;

This will replace only the word ‘Serv’ situated between 2 spaces.

Thank you,
Alex.