Question

Why doesn’t this work? Is it a character set issue or something? This is driving me crazy. I’ve been searching all over. Maybe it’s just one of those days. 🙁

select replace('Doe, John B ',' _ ','')

Expected Results: “Doe, John”

Actual Results: “Doe, John B “

If this is not possible with replace, how else can I achieve this result?

Answer 1

For just this variable:

select 
rtrim(reverse(substring(reverse(rtrim('Doe, John B ')), charindex(' ', reverse(rtrim('Doe, John B '))), len(rtrim('Doe, John B ')))))

For an entire table:

select 
rtrim(reverse(substring(reverse(rtrim(columnname)), charindex(' ', reverse(rtrim(columnname))), len(rtrim(columnname)))))
from tablename
where columnname like '% _ '