Question

I am using a function that I found here and else where on the internet to try and strip illegal characters from a field.

 Create Function [epacube].[StripSpecs](@myString varchar(500),
  @invalidChars varchar(100)) RETURNS varchar(500) AS Begin

   While PatIndex(@invalidChars, @myString) > 0
      Set @myString = Stuff(@myString, PatIndex(@invalidChars, @myString), 1, '')
   Return @myString End

in my table I have set my field value to be: set DATA_NAME = ‘Pro$d)uc^t’

If I run this query:

SELECT epacube.StripSpecs (
   DATA_NAME
  ,'%$%') FROM TABLE_DATA

It works and I get a value returned of Prod)uc^t

However, if I add another special character, it no longer works:

SELECT epacube.StripSpecs (
   DATA_NAME
  ,'%$)%') FROM TABLE_DATA

returns my original value Pro$d)uc^t

Does anyone have any suggestion for accomplishing what I need to do?

EDIT
As per the answer below here is the code that worked:

Create Function [epacube].[StripSpecs](@myString varchar(500), @invalidChars varchar(100))
RETURNS varchar(500) AS
Begin

  While PatIndex('%[' + @invalidChars + ']%', @myString) > 0
    Set @myString = Stuff(@myString, PatIndex('%[' + @invalidChars + ']%', @myString), 1, '')
  Return @myString
End

Answer 1

As with LIKE, if you want to specify that one of a set of characters should match, use [] to enclose the set.

SELECT epacube.StripSpecs (
   DATA_NAME
  ,'%[$)]%') FROM TABLE_DATA

Although, personally, given the descriptions of the function and parameters, I’d add the %[ and ]% in StripSpecs, and let the caller just give a list of characters (if you don’t want to support any other type of pattern being specified)