counting spaces before first character

[terpster73]

Is there a way for me to count the number of spaces before the first character in a row?

We are receiving files that have parent and child accounts and the only way to tell that it's a child account is that it's indented.

thanks.

 

[SkipVought]

Hi,

how about length minus trim length?

Skip,

_{Just traded in my old subtlety...
for a NUANCE!}

 

[bborissov]

SELECT LEN(YourField) - LEN(LTRIM(YourField)) AS LeadingSpaces
       FROM YourTable

NOT TESTED!

Borislav Borissov
VFP9 SP2, SQL Server 2000/2005.

 

[gmmastros]

You could try...

Declare @Temp Table(Data VarChar(50))

Insert Into @Temp Values('No Indent')
Insert Into @Temp Values('  A Little Indent')
Insert Into @Temp Values('         A Lot Indent')

Select *, PatIndex('%[^ ]%', Data) From @Temp

This code, with PatIndex, will return the character position of the first Non-Space character.

-George

"The great things about standards is that there are so many to choose from." - Fortune Cookie Wisdom

 

[bborissov]

O! forgot:

SELECT PATINDEX('[^ ]%', YourField)-1 AS LeadingSpaces
       FROM YourTable

Again: NOT TESTED!

Borislav Borissov
VFP9 SP2, SQL Server 2000/2005.

 

[terpster73]

Thank you!! this works perfectly!

 

[markros]

I think we did have a thread in LTD on this exact topic, but you got your answers anyway.

PluralSight Learning Library

 

[terpster73]

Markros, what is LTD?

Thanks,

 

[markros]

http://www.LessThanDot.com

http://forum.lessthandot.com/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=9156&hilit=leading+spaces

PluralSight Learning Library