DECLARE @vartab table
(
ID int IDENTITY(1,1),
String varchar(1000)
)

INSERT INTO @vartab (String) values (' kekrr/jocpjerovjpcrjv')--correct included
INSERT INTO @vartab (String) values ('kekrr/jocpjerovjpcrjv')--no first space excluded
INSERT INTO @vartab (String) values (' kek rr/jocpjerovjpcrjv')--space before '/' excluded
INSERT INTO @vartab (String) values (' kekrrjocpjerovjpcrjv')--no '/' excluded
INSERT INTO @vartab (String) values (' kekrr/jocp jerovj pcrjv')--after '/'space  included 

SELECT * FROM @vartab
WHERE LEFT(String,1)=' '
AND CHARINDEX('/',String) <>0
AND CHARINDEX(' ',SUBSTRING(String,2, CHARINDEX('/',String)-1)) =0

output
------------------------------------------

ID          String
----------- ------------------------
1            kekrr/jocpjerovjpcrjv
5            kekrr/jocp jerovj pcrjv

DECLARE @strings TABLE ( string VARCHAR(50) )
INSERT @strings ( string )
SELECT 'monkey says xxx/yyy is very nice' UNION
SELECT 'this is the code: 90/giggle' UNION
SELECT 'hvy/ikls oodpzx' UNION
SELECT '/loop de loop' UNION
SELECT 'play this tune/' UNION
SELECT ' this string ojasdf/asfd eidl/losk'

SELECT string,
RIGHT(LEFT( string, CHARINDEX( '/', string)-1), CASE CHARINDEX( ' ', REVERSE(LEFT( string, CHARINDEX( '/', string)-1)))
                                                  WHEN 0
                                                  THEN LEN(LEFT( string, CHARINDEX( '/', string)-1))
                                                  ELSE CHARINDEX( ' ', REVERSE(LEFT( string, CHARINDEX( '/', string)-2)))
                                                 END)
+ '/'
+ SUBSTRING( string, CHARINDEX( '/', string)+1, CHARINDEX( ' ', SUBSTRING( string, CHARINDEX( '/', string)+2, LEN(string)-CHARINDEX( '/', string)+1)))
FROM @strings

quote:

---

Originally posted by SoftFox

Madhivanan, i need to get the string xxx/yyy from 'monkey says xxx/yyy is very nice'

visakh, i cant see how i would apply the above code to do this. I need to find the index of the start of the string "xxx/yyy" from the string "monkey says xxx/yyy is very nice", where "xxx/yyy" could vary e.g "x/yyy", "abcasdfasf234234/sfsdfsfd", "/eeee".. Essentially a string that starts with a space, is then followed by any number of characters which can be anything except spaces, followed by a "/".

I can nearly get this ( see examples in original post: SELECT PATINDEX('% %/%', 'monkey says xxx/yyy is very nice')
and SELECT PATINDEX('% [^ ][^ ][^ ]/%', 'monkey says xxx/yyy is very nice')
), but i dont know how to specify any number of characters which can be anything but a space.

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