I have two strings in SQL and the REPLACE function only works on one of them, why is that?
Example 1:
SELECT REPLACE('18 286.74', ' ', '')
Example 2:
SELECT REPLACE('z z', ' ', '')
Example 1's output is still "18 286.74" whereas Example 2's output is "zz". Why does SQL not react the same way to both strings?
UPDATE:
When running select replace('123 123.12', ' ', '') that works fine, still not with '18 286.74'.
Test it the following way.
select unicode(substring('18 286.74', 3, 1))
If the code returns 32 then it's a space, if not, it's a different Unicode character and your replace ' ' won't work.
maybe cast is needed.
UPD: or not(on sql 2005 works fine too)
Are you sure it is a space? i.e. the same whitespace character that you are passing as the second argument? The code you've posted works fine for me on SQL Server 2008.
Re working on your friends PC - perhaps the whitespace got normalized when you sent it to him?
You are probably using non-breakable space.
I could reproduce it by typing ALT+0160 into the number in SELECT REPLACE('18 286.74', ' ', '')
Could you please issue this following:
SELECT CAST('18 286.74' AS BINARY), REPLACE('18 286.74', ' ', '')
by copying the '18 286.74' from REPLACE into CAST?
I was having the same issue and found that it was a char(10) (line feed). when copied out of Managment Studio it became a char(32) but in the record it was a char(10) try
Select Replace(@string, char(13), '')
