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Return a list of prefixes

Author

Topic

rkruis
Starting Member

28 Posts

Posted - 2011-10-11 : 13:53:39

I have a table with a few fields. One of the fields (Abstract) is a 255 char with example data shown below. Each of the records is prefixed with a string and then a dash.

I would like to return all unique prefixes before the dash. Is there a way to do this?

Data
IDX Abstract
121 ACC - a string of text
122 ACC - a string of text
123 ABAC - a string of text
124 DEEF - a string of text
125 ABBDE - a string of text
126 ACC - a string of text
127 ABBDE - a string of text

Return (Just the prefixes not duplicated)
ABAC
DEEF
ABBDE
ACC

visakh16
Very Important crosS Applying yaK Herder

52326 Posts

Posted - 2011-10-11 : 14:19:24

yup. do like


SELECT DISTINCT LEFT(Abstract + ' - ',CHARINDEX(' - ',Abstract + ' - ')-1)
FROM Data

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SQL Server MVP
http://visakhm.blogspot.com/

rkruis
Starting Member

28 Posts

Posted - 2011-10-11 : 17:20:13

Thank you very much. I will try this tonight :)

visakh16
Very Important crosS Applying yaK Herder

52326 Posts

Posted - 2011-10-12 : 01:25:18

welcome
let me know how you got on

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SQL Server MVP
http://visakhm.blogspot.com/

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