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Problem with 'in' function :(

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Topic

FruitBatInShades
Yak Posting Veteran

51 Posts

Posted - 2006-08-07 : 09:34:14

I am trying to filter out all itemnames that begin with a letter using this statement:-

SELECT UniqueID,'(' + Left(ItemName,1) +')' + ItemName AS ItemName FROM DirectoryItems WHERE Left(ItemName,1) not in('ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwyxz')

The brackets are to prove that ItemName starts with a letter! Any idea why this would be return all rows?

nr
SQLTeam MVY

12543 Posts

Posted - 2006-08-07 : 09:56:12

SELECT UniqueID,'(' + Left(ItemName,1) +')' + ItemName AS ItemName
FROM DirectoryItems
WHERE Left(ItemName,1) not in('ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwyxz')
is the same as
WHERE Left(ItemName,1) <> 'ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwyxz'
(you only have one string for the in clause)
it should be
WHERE Left(ItemName,1) not in('A','B','C',....')

it's easier to
WHERE Left(ItemName,1) like ('[^A-Za-z]%')
WHERE Left(ItemName,1) not like ('[A-Za-z]%')

==========================================
Cursors are useful if you don't know sql.
DTS can be used in a similar way.
Beer is not cold and it isn't fizzy.

madhivanan
Premature Yak Congratulator

22864 Posts

Posted - 2006-08-07 : 10:12:15

Is left necessary?

WHERE ItemName like '[^A-Za-z]%'
WHERE ItemName not like '[A-Za-z]%'

Madhivanan

Failing to plan is Planning to fail

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