Update: leaving my previous solution available below but came up with a better one based on what Jeremy Posted.
New solution:
DECLARE @xml XML = 'abc & xyz ><';
SELECT newstring = ((SELECT @xml FOR XML PATH(''), TYPE).value('.', 'varchar(8000)'));
Returns:
abc & xyz ><
OLD SOLUTION (still viable):
I have a couple functions for this type of thing. First you need rangeAB and CharMapAB
RangeAB
CREATE FUNCTION dbo.rangeAB
(
@low bigint,
@high bigint,
@gap bigint,
@row1 bit
)
/****************************************************************************************
[Purpose]:
Creates up to 531,441,000,000 sequentia integers numbers beginning with @low and ending
with @high. Used to replace iterative methods such as loops, cursors and recursive CTEs
to solve SQL problems. Based on Itzik Ben-Gan's getnums function with some tweeks and
enhancements and added functionality. The logic for getting rn to begin at 0 or 1 is
based comes from Jeff Moden's fnTally function.
The name range because it's similar to clojure's range function. The name "rangeAB" as
used because "range" is a reserved SQL keyword.
[Author]: Alan Burstein
[Compatibility]:
SQL Server 2008+ and Azure SQL Database
[Syntax]:
SELECT r.RN, r.OP, r.N1, r.N2
FROM dbo.rangeAB(@low,@high,@gap,@row1) AS r;
[Parameters]:
@low = a bigint that represents the lowest value for n1.
@high = a bigint that represents the highest value for n1.
@gap = a bigint that represents how much n1 and n2 will increase each row; @gap also
represents the difference between n1 and n2.
@row1 = a bit that represents the first value of rn. When @row = 0 then rn begins
at 0, when @row = 1 then rn will begin at 1.
[Returns]:
Inline Table Valued Function returns:
rn = bigint; a row number that works just like T-SQL ROW_NUMBER() except that it can
start at 0 or 1 which is dictated by @row1.
op = bigint; returns the "opposite number that relates to rn. When rn begins with 0 and
ends with 10 then 10 is the opposite of 0, 9 the opposite of 1, etc. When rn begins
with 1 and ends with 5 then 1 is the opposite of 5, 2 the opposite of 4, etc...
n1 = bigint; a sequential number starting at the value of @low and incrimentingby the
value of @gap until it is less than or equal to the value of @high.
n2 = bigint; a sequential number starting at the value of @low+@gap and incrimenting
by the value of @gap.
[Dependencies]:
N/A
[Developer Notes]:
1. The lowest and highest possible numbers returned are whatever is allowable by a
bigint. The function, however, returns no more than 531,441,000,000 rows (8100^3).
2. @gap does not affect rn, rn will begin at @row1 and increase by 1 until the last row
unless its used in a query where a filter is applied to rn.
3. @gap must be greater than 0 or the function will not return any rows.
4. Keep in mind that when @row1 is 0 then the highest row-number will be the number of
rows returned minus 1
5. If you only need is a sequential set beginning at 0 or 1 then, for best performance
use the RN column. Use N1 and/or N2 when you need to begin your sequence at any
number other than 0 or 1 or if you need a gap between your sequence of numbers.
6. Although @gap is a bigint it must be a positive integer or the function will
not return any rows.
7. The function will not return any rows when one of the following conditions are true:
* any of the input parameters are NULL
* @high is less than @low
* @gap is not greater than 0
To force the function to return all NULLs instead of not returning anything you can
add the following code to the end of the query:
UNION ALL
SELECT NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL
WHERE NOT (@high&@low&@gap&@row1 IS NOT NULL AND @high >= @low AND @gap > 0)
This code was excluded as it adds a ~5% performance penalty.
8. There is no performance penalty for sorting by rn ASC; there is a large performance
penalty for sorting in descending order WHEN @row1 = 1; WHEN @row1 = 0
If you need a descending sort the use op in place of rn then sort by rn ASC.
Best Practices:
--===== 1. Using RN (rownumber)
-- (1.1) The best way to get the numbers 1,2,3...@high (e.g. 1 to 5):
SELECT RN FROM dbo.rangeAB(1,5,1,1);
-- (1.2) The best way to get the numbers 0,1,2...@high-1 (e.g. 0 to 5):
SELECT RN FROM dbo.rangeAB(0,5,1,0);
--===== 2. Using OP for descending sorts without a performance penalty
-- (2.1) The best way to get the numbers 5,4,3...@high (e.g. 5 to 1):
SELECT op FROM dbo.rangeAB(1,5,1,1) ORDER BY rn ASC;
-- (2.2) The best way to get the numbers 0,1,2...@high-1 (e.g. 5 to 0):
SELECT op FROM dbo.rangeAB(1,6,1,0) ORDER BY rn ASC;
--===== 3. Using N1
-- (3.1) To begin with numbers other than 0 or 1 use N1 (e.g. -3 to 3):
SELECT N1 FROM dbo.rangeAB(-3,3,1,1);
-- (3.2) ROW_NUMBER() is built in. If you want a ROW_NUMBER() include RN:
SELECT RN, N1 FROM dbo.rangeAB(-3,3,1,1);
-- (3.3) If you wanted a ROW_NUMBER() that started at 0 you would do this:
SELECT RN, N1 FROM dbo.rangeAB(-3,3,1,0);
--===== 4. Using N2 and @gap
-- (4.1) To get 0,10,20,30...100, set @low to 0, @high to 100 and @gap to 10:
SELECT N1 FROM dbo.rangeAB(0,100,10,1);
-- (4.2) Note that N2=N1+@gap; this allows you to create a sequence of ranges.
-- For example, to get (0,10),(10,20),(20,30).... (90,100):
SELECT N1, N2 FROM dbo.rangeAB(0,90,10,1);
-- (4.3) Remember that a rownumber is included and it can begin at 0 or 1:
SELECT RN, N1, N2 FROM dbo.rangeAB(0,90,10,1);
[Examples]:
--===== 1. Generating Sample data (using rangeAB to create "dummy rows")
-- The query below will generate 10,000 ids and random numbers between 50,000 and 500,000
SELECT
someId = r.rn,
someNumer = ABS(CHECKSUM(NEWID())%450000)+50001
FROM rangeAB(1,10000,1,1) r;
--===== 2. Create a series of dates; rn is 0 to include the first date in the series
DECLARE @startdate DATE = '20180101', @enddate DATE = '20180131';
SELECT r.rn, calDate = DATEADD(dd, r.rn, @startdate)
FROM dbo.rangeAB(1, DATEDIFF(dd,@startdate,@enddate),1,0) r;
GO
--===== 3. Splitting (tokenizing) a string with fixed sized items
-- given a delimited string of identifiers that are always 7 characters long
DECLARE @string VARCHAR(1000) = 'A601225,B435223,G008081,R678567';
SELECT
itemNumber = r.rn, -- item's ordinal position
itemIndex = r.n1, -- item's position in the string (it's CHARINDEX value)
item = SUBSTRING(@string, r.n1, 7) -- item (token)
FROM dbo.rangeAB(1, LEN(@string), 8,1) r;
GO
--===== 4. Splitting (tokenizing) a string with random delimiters
DECLARE @string VARCHAR(1000) = 'ABC123,999F,XX,9994443335';
SELECT
itemNumber = ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDER BY r.rn), -- item's ordinal position
itemIndex = r.n1+1, -- item's position in the string (it's CHARINDEX value)
item = SUBSTRING
(
@string,
r.n1+1,
ISNULL(NULLIF(CHARINDEX(',',@string,r.n1+1),0)-r.n1-1, 8000)
) -- item (token)
FROM dbo.rangeAB(0,DATALENGTH(@string),1,1) r
WHERE SUBSTRING(@string,r.n1,1) = ',' OR r.n1 = 0;
-- logic borrowed from: http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/Tally+Table/72993/
--===== 5. Grouping by a weekly intervals
-- 5.1. how to create a series of start/end dates between @startDate & @endDate
DECLARE @startDate DATE = '1/1/2015', @endDate DATE = '2/1/2015';
SELECT
WeekNbr = r.RN,
WeekStart = DATEADD(DAY,r.N1,@StartDate),
WeekEnd = DATEADD(DAY,r.N2-1,@StartDate)
FROM dbo.rangeAB(0,datediff(DAY,@StartDate,@EndDate),7,1) r;
GO
-- 5.2. LEFT JOIN to the weekly interval table
BEGIN
DECLARE @startDate datetime = '1/1/2015', @endDate datetime = '2/1/2015';
-- sample data
DECLARE @loans TABLE (loID INT, lockDate DATE);
INSERT @loans SELECT r.rn, DATEADD(dd, ABS(CHECKSUM(NEWID())%32), @startDate)
FROM dbo.rangeAB(1,50,1,1) r;
-- solution
SELECT
WeekNbr = r.RN,
WeekStart = dt.WeekStart,
WeekEnd = dt.WeekEnd,
total = COUNT(l.lockDate)
FROM dbo.rangeAB(0,datediff(DAY,@StartDate,@EndDate),7,1) r
CROSS APPLY (VALUES (
CAST(DATEADD(DAY,r.N1,@StartDate) AS DATE),
CAST(DATEADD(DAY,r.N2-1,@StartDate) AS DATE))) dt(WeekStart,WeekEnd)
LEFT JOIN @loans l ON l.lockDate BETWEEN dt.WeekStart AND dt.WeekEnd
GROUP BY r.RN, dt.WeekStart, dt.WeekEnd ;
END;
--===== 6. Identify the first vowel and last vowel in a along with their positions
DECLARE @string VARCHAR(200) = 'This string has vowels';
SELECT TOP(1) position = r.rn, letter = SUBSTRING(@string,r.rn,1)
FROM dbo.rangeAB(1,LEN(@string),1,1) r
WHERE SUBSTRING(@string,r.rn,1) LIKE '%[aeiou]%'
ORDER BY r.rn;
-- To avoid a sort in the execution plan we'll use op instead of rn
SELECT TOP(1) position = r.op, letter = SUBSTRING(@string,r.op,1)
FROM dbo.rangeAB(1,LEN(@string),1,1) r
WHERE SUBSTRING(@string,r.rn,1) LIKE '%[aeiou]%'
ORDER BY r.rn;
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Revision History]:
Rev 00 - 20140518 - Initial Development - Alan Burstein
Rev 01 - 20151029 - Added 65 rows to make L1=465; 465^3=100.5M. Updated comment section
- Alan Burstein
Rev 02 - 20180613 - Complete re-design including opposite number column (op)
Rev 03 - 20180920 - Added additional CROSS JOIN to L2 for 530B rows max - Alan Burstein
****************************************************************************************/
RETURNS TABLE WITH SCHEMABINDING AS RETURN
WITH L1(N) AS
(
SELECT 1
FROM (VALUES
(0),(0),(0),(0),(0),(0),(0),(0),(0),(0),(0),(0),(0),(0),(0),(0),(0),(0),(0),(0),(0),(0),
(0),(0),(0),(0),(0),(0),(0),(0),(0),(0),(0),(0),(0),(0),(0),(0),(0),(0),(0),(0),(0),(0),
(0),(0),(0),(0),(0),(0),(0),(0),(0),(0),(0),(0),(0),(0),(0),(0),(0),(0),(0),(0),(0),(0),
(0),(0),(0),(0),(0),(0),(0),(0),(0),(0),(0),(0),(0),(0),(0),(0),(0),(0),(0),(0),(0),(0),
(0),(0)) T(N) -- 90 values
),
L2(N) AS (SELECT 1 FROM L1 a CROSS JOIN L1 b CROSS JOIN L1 c),
iTally AS (SELECT rn = ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDER BY (SELECT 1)) FROM L2 a CROSS JOIN L2 b)
SELECT
r.RN,
r.OP,
r.N1,
r.N2
FROM
(
SELECT
RN = 0,
OP = (@high-@low)/@gap,
N1 = @low,
N2 = @gap+@low
WHERE @row1 = 0
UNION ALL -- COALESCE required in the TOP statement below for error handling purposes
SELECT TOP (ABS((COALESCE(@high,0)-COALESCE(@low,0))/COALESCE(@gap,0)+COALESCE(@row1,1)))
RN = i.rn,
OP = (@high-@low)/@gap+(2*@row1)-i.rn,
N1 = (i.rn-@row1)*@gap+@low,
N2 = (i.rn-(@row1-1))*@gap+@low
FROM iTally AS i
ORDER BY rn
) AS r
WHERE @high&@low&@gap&@row1 IS NOT NULL AND @high >= @low AND @gap > 0;
CharMapAB
CREATE FUNCTION dbo.charmapAB
(
@asciiOnly BIT,
@xmlCheck BIT
)
/*****************************************************************************************
[Purpose]:
Generates a table containing the numbers 1 through 65535 along with the
corrsponding CHAR(N) value (e.g. CHAR(65) = "A") and/or UNICODE value (e.g.
NCHAR(324) = "ń", aka the Latin minuscule: ń.
The ascii_xml_special and unicode_xml_special columns at bits that indicate if
the character is an ASCII or UNICODE Reserved XML character. The ascii_xml and
unicode_xml columns show what will be displayed when the character is output as
in XML format (e.g. SELECT CAST('>' AS XML) will return ">".
is_ascii_whitespace indicates if the character is a "whitespace character" (such
as CHAR(9), CHAR(32) and CHAR(160)). abin is the character's ascii binary value
and ubin is the characters unicode binary value.
[Developer Notes]:
1. Have not determined UNICODE whitespace characters.
[Examples]:
--===== Get a list of ASCII whitespace characters
SELECT cm.* -- WhiteSpaceCharacters = 'CHAR('+CAST(n AS varchar(3))+')'
FROM dbo.CharmapAB(0,0) AS cm;
SELECT cm.* -- WhiteSpaceCharacters = 'CHAR('+CAST(n AS varchar(3))+')'
FROM dbo.CharmapAB(1,1) AS cm;
SELECT cm.* -- WhiteSpaceCharacters = 'CHAR('+CAST(n AS varchar(3))+')'
FROM dbo.CharmapAB(0,1) AS cm
WHERE cm.char_nbr IN (9,10,13,32,38,60,62);
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Revision History]:
Rev 00 - May 2015 - Initial Development - Alan Burstein
Rev 01 - 20150819 changed whitespace val, column names, added quoted_val
- Alan Burstein
*****************************************************************************************/
RETURNS TABLE WITH SCHEMABINDING AS RETURN
WITH rowz(N) AS (SELECT CASE @asciiOnly WHEN 0 THEN 255 ELSE 65535 END)
SELECT
char_nbr = i.RN,
ascii_val = CHAR(cs.RN),
unicode_val = u.unicode_val,
quoted_val = uq.quoted_val,
is_unicode_only = SIGN(i.RN&256),
is_acsii_ws = CASE WHEN cs.RN IN ((2),(9),(10),(13),(32),(160)) THEN 1 ELSE 0 END,
is_ascii_blank = CASE WHEN cs.RN BETWEEN 28 AND 31
OR cs.RN BETWEEN 129 AND 159 THEN 1 ELSE 0 END,
unicode_xml_val = x.unicode_xml_val,
bin = CAST(NCHAR(cs.RN) AS varbinary)
FROM rowz
CROSS APPLY dbo.rangeAB(1,rowz.N,1,1) AS i
CROSS APPLY (VALUES(CHECKSUM(i.RN))) AS cs(RN)
CROSS APPLY (SELECT TOP (@xmlCheck*1) NCHAR(cs.RN)
WHERE @xmlCheck = 1
FOR XML PATH('')) AS x(unicode_xml_val)
CROSS APPLY (VALUES(NCHAR(cs.RN))) AS u(unicode_val)
CROSS APPLY (VALUES('"'+u.unicode_val+'"')) AS uq(quoted_val);
CharmapAB will help you identify which characters are XML:
If you run this query you can identify which ASCII characters are "XML Protected"
SELECT cm.*
FROM dbo.CharmapAB(0,1) AS cm;
Returns (truncated for brevity)
char_nbr ascii_val unicode_val quoted_val is_unicode_only is_acsii_ws is_ascii_blank unicode_xml_val bin
--------- --------- ----------- ---------- -------------------- ----------- -------------- -------------------- ------
1 "" 0 0 0  0x0100
2 "" 0 1 0  0x0200
....
32 " " 0 1 0   0x2000
33 ! ! "!" 0 0 0 ! 0x2100
34 " " """ 0 0 0 " 0x2200
35 # # "#" 0 0 0 # 0x2300
36 $ $ "$" 0 0 0 $ 0x2400
37 % % "%" 0 0 0 % 0x2500
38 & & "&" 0 0 0 & 0x2600
39 ' ' "'" 0 0 0 ' 0x2700
...
My experience has been that the first 31 characters are never used except char(9),char(10) and char(13) (tab carriage return and line returns). As well as char(32),char(38),char(60) and char(62) which are: space, ampersand (&), then greater than and less than ("<" and ">"). This query will likely be enough to get you the characters you need:
DECLARE @yourstring VARCHAR(8000) = 'ABC&123<xxx>'
SELECT REPLACE(REPLACE(REPLACE(REPLACE(REPLACE(REPLACE(REPLACE(@yourstring,
'	', CHAR(9)),
'
', CHAR(10)),
'
', CHAR(13)),
' ', CHAR(32)),
'&', CHAR(38)),
'<', CHAR(60)),
'>', CHAR(62));
Returns: ABC&123
You can use CharMapAB to update this as needed.
