How to convert empty spaces into null values, using SQL Server?

Question

I have a table and the columns on this table contains empty spaces for some records. Now I need to move the data to another table and replace the empty spaces with a N

Answer 1

A case statement should do the trick when selecting from your source table:

CASE
  WHEN col1 = ' ' THEN NULL
  ELSE col1
END col1

Also, one thing to note is that your LTRIM and RTRIM reduce the value from a space (' ') to blank (''). If you need to remove white space, then the case statement should be modified appropriately:

CASE
  WHEN LTRIM(RTRIM(col1)) = '' THEN NULL
  ELSE LTRIM(RTRIM(col1))
END col1