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SQL Substring and Patter return

Hi experts,

In my SQL 2005 database I have a string that looks like the following:
gerling allg konzern - umbrella excess of loss (1.03: motor)

What I want to do is return only the '1.03' from within the string.
Not only this, it maybe the case where it could be 1.01.01 and also 1.01.01.xx.xx.xx

Could somone help me with this please, I am stuck!

Aneesh

select SUBSTRING (String, CHARINDEX('(' ,String )+1, CHARINDEX(':', String) - CHARINDEX('(' ,String )-1 ) from urTable

lukepapa

ASKER

Hi thanks for the quick response, when I run this I get the following error:

Msg 536, Level 16, State 3, Line 1
Invalid length parameter passed to the substring function.

(1009 row(s) affected)

Aneesh

select SUBSTRING (String, CHARINDEX('(' ,String )+1, CHARINDEX(':', String) - CHARINDEX('(' ,String )-1 ) from urTable
WHERE String like '%(%:%)'

lukepapa

ASKER

Hi, still no joy. I get the same error as previously.

Aneesh

can u please return the output of this query

SELECT *
from urTable
WHERE String like '% (%:%)'

lukepapa

ASKER

Please find document attached with output of query
layer.xlsx

ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

Aneesh

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lukepapa

ASKER

Thanks very much, I appreciate your time helpling me :-)

lukepapa

ASKER

How about if I wanted to select a string which contains (xxxxxxxxxx) and I needed to remove everything in the brackets - xxxxxxxxx and the brackets themselves.................