Writing a SQL query to consolidate 2 fileds into the same format

Hi erikTsomik,

If you want to retrieve "xxx-xxx-xxxx" from   "xxx-xxx-xxxx,xxx.xxx.xxxx,(xxx)xxx-xxxx)" you can use the below query.

select left(phoneNumber,12) from users ;

But that will give a mixture of numbers .What I need to is to take the phoneNumber  column and update to format xxx-xxx-xxxx and put it into the Contact column

can you share more data with us !!!!!!

You'll just end up with different formats again!

Strip the formatting from the stored data.  Formatting chars are not actual data in this case.

Add a formatting code, if you need it, to determine how to format the data when it is output/displayed.

C'mon, wouldn't format: xxxxxxxxxx be a lot simpler and more consistent all the way around!?

How would I strip it off can you give me an example

You could use a function that stripped every nonnumeric char.

Or, if your data is reasonably clean, just embed REPLACEs:

UPDATE dbo.tablename
SET contact = REPLACE(REPLACE(REPLACE(REPLACE(phone_number, '-', ''), '.', ''), '(', ''), ')') --...
WHERE
    contact IS NULL OR contact = ''


Then add a CHECK to the table to prevent bad data from getting in:

ALTER TABLE table_name
ADD CONSTRAINT table_name__CK_contact CHECK(contact NOT LIKE '%[^0-9]%')

will constraint remove strip off unwanted data

No, it will prevent non-numeric char(s) from being INSERTed into the contact column.

For example:


create table table_name ( contact varchar(30) not null )

ALTER TABLE table_name
 ADD CONSTRAINT table_name__CK_contact CHECK(contact NOT LIKE '%[^0-9]%')
 go
 
 insert into table_name values('111')
 insert into table_name values('12345678990898098')
 insert into table_name values('1234b')
 go
 select * from table_name


If you wanted, you could also add a check to verify that the length is either 7 or 10 digits.