Question

I have a column with data in a special “format”. Example:

L100000
L50
L5
S10
S15L10
S20
S90
S10
S10L5
S10L40
S10L5

The value consists of an “S” and/or an “L”, each with a number following the letter.
I need to write a query, which will return two columns, “S” and “L”, which will have only the coresponding numeric value following the letter.
The above example should look like this:

S         L  
========  ==========
0         100000
0         50
0         5
10        0
15        10
20        0
90        0
10        0
10        5
10        40
10        5

If no “S” or “L” is found, the default value is zero.

Answer 1

try this:

DECLARE @YourTable table (RowValue varchar(30))

INSERT INTO @YourTable VALUES ('L100000')
INSERT INTO @YourTable VALUES ('L50')
INSERT INTO @YourTable VALUES ('L5')
INSERT INTO @YourTable VALUES ('S10')
INSERT INTO @YourTable VALUES ('S15L10')
INSERT INTO @YourTable VALUES ('S20')
INSERT INTO @YourTable VALUES ('S90')
INSERT INTO @YourTable VALUES ('S10')
INSERT INTO @YourTable VALUES ('S10L5')
INSERT INTO @YourTable VALUES ('S10L40')
INSERT INTO @YourTable VALUES ('S10L5')

SELECT
    CASE
        WHEN LocationS>0 AND LocationL=0 THEN RIGHT(RowValue,Length-1)
        WHEN LocationS>0 THEN SUBSTRING(RowValue,2,LocationL-2)
        ELSE NULL
    END AS S
    ,CASE
         WHEN LocationS=0 AND LocationL>0 THEN RIGHT(RowValue,Length-1)
         WHEN LocationS>0 AND LocationL>0 THEN RIGHT(RowValue,Length-LocationL)
         ELSE NULL
     END AS L
    ,RowValue
    FROM (SELECT
              RowValue
                  ,CHARINDEX('S',RowValue) AS LocationS
                  ,CHARINDEX('L',RowValue) AS LocationL
                  ,LEN(RowValue) AS Length
              FROM @YourTable
         ) dt

OUTPUT

S                              L                              RowValue
------------------------------ ------------------------------ --------------
NULL                           100000                         L100000
NULL                           50                             L50
NULL                           5                              L5
10                             NULL                           S10
15                             10                             S15L10
20                             NULL                           S20
90                             NULL                           S90
10                             NULL                           S10
10                             5                              S10L5
10                             40                             S10L40
10                             5                              S10L5

(11 row(s) affected)

if you have loads of data give this a try, it may be faster (has same output, basically removed the derived table and made everything use inline functions):

SELECT
    CASE
        WHEN CHARINDEX('S',RowValue)>0 AND CHARINDEX('L',RowValue)=0 THEN RIGHT(RowValue,LEN(RowValue)-1)
        WHEN CHARINDEX('S',RowValue)>0 THEN SUBSTRING(RowValue,2,CHARINDEX('L',RowValue)-2)
        ELSE NULL
    END AS S
    ,CASE
         WHEN CHARINDEX('S',RowValue)=0 AND CHARINDEX('L',RowValue)>0 THEN RIGHT(RowValue,LEN(RowValue)-1)
         WHEN CHARINDEX('S',RowValue)>0 AND CHARINDEX('L',RowValue)>0 THEN RIGHT(RowValue,LEN(RowValue)-CHARINDEX('L',RowValue))
         ELSE NULL
     END AS L
    ,RowValue
    FROM @YourTable