Remove all spaces from a string in SQL Server

Question

What is the best way to remove all spaces from a string in SQL Server 2008?

LTRIM(RTRIM(\' a b \')) would remove all spaces at the right and left of th

Answer 1

Just in case you need to TRIM spaces in all columns, you could use this script to do it dynamically:

--Just change table name
declare @MyTable varchar(100)
set @MyTable = 'MyTable'

--temp table to get column names and a row id
select column_name, ROW_NUMBER() OVER(ORDER BY column_name) as id into #tempcols from INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLUMNS 
WHERE   DATA_TYPE IN ('varchar', 'nvarchar') and TABLE_NAME = @MyTable

declare @tri int
select @tri = count(*) from #tempcols
declare @i int
select @i = 0
declare @trimmer nvarchar(max)
declare @comma varchar(1)
set @comma = ', '

--Build Update query
select @trimmer = 'UPDATE [dbo].[' + @MyTable + '] SET '

WHILE @i <= @tri 
BEGIN

    IF (@i = @tri)
        BEGIN
        set @comma = ''
        END
    SELECT  @trimmer = @trimmer + CHAR(10)+ '[' + COLUMN_NAME + '] = LTRIM(RTRIM([' + COLUMN_NAME + ']))'+@comma
    FROM    #tempcols
    where id = @i

    select @i = @i+1
END

--execute the entire query
EXEC sp_executesql @trimmer

drop table #tempcols