Question

i am trying to use the update function to delete everything after the first white blank space. i have tied this but not working for me so far…
here is my code:

UPDATE MyTable
SET MyField= LEFT(MyField, CHARINDEX('', MyField) - 1)
WHERE CHARINDEX('', MyField) > 0

Answer 1

You have no space in between those single quotes so it is not matching on anything:

UPDATE MyTable                        
SET MyField= LEFT(MyField, CHARINDEX(' ', MyField) - 1)
WHERE CHARINDEX(' ', MyField) > 0;    ^-- this should be a space
                 ^-- this should be a space

See SQL Fiddle with Demo.