Question

Why does PATINDEX() return incorrect values at various times?

Asked by: ScottPletcher

My SQL Server returns 4 as the result of:

SELECT PATINDEX('%[*+-/]%', '|11.0000000000|123-|123456|1234-|5*+')

What am I doing wrong here?  Isn't the first * or + or - or / until much later in the string than position 4??

Other times PATINDEX() will return 0 even when one of the chars is clearly present in the string.

I get the same result from SQL versions 8.00.2055 and 9.00.4035.00 (X64).

What am I specifying wrong?

Or does anyone know of a bug (and fix) for PATINDEX() in SQL Server?

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Asked On
2009-02-17 at 15:43:40ID24152239
Topic

MS SQL Server

Participating Experts
2
Points
500
Comments
6

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Answers

 

by: reb73Posted on 2009-02-17 at 15:55:17ID: 23665588

Forward slash '/' is and indicator for an escape character following the forward slash, try without the forward slash in the patindex..

 

by: reb73Posted on 2009-02-17 at 15:57:07ID: 23665604

Try escaping the forward slash by doubling it and placing it immediately after the '[' character like -

SELECT PATINDEX('%[//*+-]%', '|11.00000000/00|123-|123456|1234-|5*+')

 

by: reb73Posted on 2009-02-17 at 16:01:25ID: 23665630

Just figured it out, you had the hyphen '-' between '+' and '/', which fooled the parser into thinking +-/ was a range between + and /..

It was actually the hyphen which was causing the issue, leaving it at the end is ensuring that it is used as a literal search character..

 

by: acperkinsPosted on 2009-02-17 at 21:20:14ID: 23667155

Good one.

 

by: ScottPletcherPosted on 2009-02-18 at 07:47:00ID: 23671359

BLESS YOU REB73!!

I overlooked that somehow.  **Thanks sooo much**.  This was driving me crazy :-), since I had the code sooo close to working.

 

by: ScottPletcherPosted on 2009-02-18 at 07:47:42ID: 31548076

Good catch!  Fantastic!!  Thanks.

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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