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Asked: 2026-05-26T14:24:03+00:00

Just wondering if it is possible in Mysql to move characters inside a string

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Just wondering if it is possible in Mysql to move characters inside a string without having to resort to PHP, etc.

Example:

Blue Dahlia, The

Has to become “The Blue Dahlia”. So remove the comma and move the “the” after it to the beginning. Removing the comma could be done with:

... SET field = REPLACE(field, CHAR(47), '')

But moving the “the” to the beginning seems daunting to me since I just can’t replace all the instances of “the”, only the one after the last comma.

This is easily done with PHP but I was wondering if I could do it in SQL, since it’s (hopefully) a one-time thing.

Thanks.

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    You can try with:

    ... SET field = CONCAT_WS(' ', TRIM(SUBSTRING_INDEX(field, ',', -1)), TRIM(SUBSTRING_INDEX(field, ',', 1)))

    Quick explanation:

    SUBSTRING_INDEX splits string by delimiter. -1 takes first part from the right; 1 first from the left.

    TRIM removes unnecessary whitespaces.

    CONCAT_WS merges parts of string with spacebar separator.

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