String Functions

String functions perform various character manipulations. They operate on character strings.

Function	Example	Description
Ascii	`Ascii('a')`	Converts a single character string to its corresponding ASCII code, between 0 and 255. If the character expression evaluates to multiple characters, the ASCII code corresponding to the first character in the expression is returned.
Bit_Length	`Bit_Length('abcdef')`	Returns the length, in bits, of a specified string. Each Unicode character is 2 bytes in length (equal to 16 bits).
Char	`Char(35)`	Converts a numeric value between 0 and 255 to the character value corresponding to the ASCII code.
Char_Length	`Char_Length(Customer_Name)`	Returns the length, in number of characters, of a specified string. Leading and trailing blanks are not counted in the length of the string.
Concat	`SELECT DISTINCT Concat ('abc', 'def') FROM employee`	Concatenates two character strings.
Insert	`SELECT Insert('123456', 2, 3, 'abcd') FROM table`	Inserts a specified character string into a specified location in another character string.
Left	`SELECT Left('123456', 3) FROM table`	Returns a specified number of characters from the left of a string.
Length	`Length(Customer_Name)`	Returns the length, in number of characters, of a specified string. The length is returned excluding any trailing blank characters.
Locate	`Locate('d' 'abcdef')`	Returns the numeric position of a character string in another character string. If the character string is not found in the string being searched, the function returns a value of 0.
LocateN	`Locate('d' 'abcdef', 3)`	Like Locate, returns the numeric position of a character string in another character string. LocateN includes an integer argument that enables you to specify a starting position to begin the search.
Lower	`Lower(Customer_Name)`	Converts a character string to lowercase.
Octet_Length	`Octet_Length('abcdef')`	Returns the number of bytes of a specified string.
Position	`Position('d', 'abcdef')`	Returns the numeric position of `strExpr1` in a character expression. If `strExpr1` is not found, the function returns 0.
Repeat	`Repeat('abc', 4)`	Repeats a specified expression `n` times.
Replace	`Replace('abcd1234', '123', 'zz')`	Replaces one or more characters from a specified character expression with one or more other characters.
Right	`SELECT Right('123456', 3) FROM table`	Returns a specified number of characters from the right of a string.
Space	`Space(2)`	Inserts blank spaces.
Substring	`Substring('abcdef' FROM 2)`	Creates a new string starting from a fixed number of characters into the original string.
SubstringN	`Substring('abcdef' FROM 2 FOR 3)`	Like Substring, creates a new string starting from a fixed number of characters into the original string. SubstringN includes an integer argument that enables you to specify the length of the new string, in number of characters.
TrimBoth	`Trim(BOTH '_' FROM '_abcdef_')`	Strips specified leading and trailing characters from a character string.
TrimLeading	`Trim(LEADING '_' FROM '_abcdef')`	Strips specified leading characters from a character string.
TrimTrailing	`Trim(TRAILING '_' FROM 'abcdef_')`	Strips specified trailing characters from a character string.
Upper	`Upper(Customer_Name)`	Converts a character string to uppercase.