MySQL select fields containing leading or trailing whitespace

Question

I can use the MySQL TRIM() method to cleanup fields containing leading or trailing whitespace with an UPDATE like so:

UPDATE Foo SE         


        

Answer 1

Another solution could be using SUBSTRING() and IN to compare the last and first characters of the string with a list of whitespace charaters...

(SUBSTRING(@s,  1, 1) IN (' ', '\t', '\n', '\r') OR SUBSTRING(@s, -1, 1) IN (' ', '\t', '\n', '\r'))

...where @s is any input string. Add additional whitespace characters to the comparison list as needed in your case.

Here's a simple test to demonstrate how that expression behaves with various string inputs:

SET @s_normal = 'x';
SET @s_ws_leading = '\tx';
SET @s_ws_trailing = 'x ';
SET @s_ws_both = '\rx ';

SELECT
    NOT(SUBSTRING(@s_normal,      1, 1) IN (' ', '\t', '\n', '\r') OR SUBSTRING(@s_normal,     -1, 1) IN (' ', '\t', '\n', '\r')) test_normal      #=> 1 (PASS)
  ,    (SUBSTRING(@s_ws_leading,  1, 1) IN (' ', '\t', '\n', '\r') OR SUBSTRING(@s_ws_leading, -1, 1) IN (' ', '\t', '\n', '\r')) test_ws_leading  #=> 1 (PASS)
  ,    (SUBSTRING(@s_ws_trailing, 1, 1) IN (' ', '\t', '\n', '\r') OR SUBSTRING(@s_ws_trailing,-1, 1) IN (' ', '\t', '\n', '\r')) test_ws_trailing #=> 1 (PASS)
  ,    (SUBSTRING(@s_ws_both,     1, 1) IN (' ', '\t', '\n', '\r') OR SUBSTRING(@s_ws_both,    -1, 1) IN (' ', '\t', '\n', '\r')) test_ws_both     #=> 1 (PASS)
;

If this is something you'll be doing a lot you could also create a function for it:

DROP FUNCTION IF EXISTS has_leading_or_trailing_whitespace;

CREATE FUNCTION has_leading_or_trailing_whitespace(s VARCHAR(2000))
  RETURNS BOOLEAN
  DETERMINISTIC
RETURN (SUBSTRING(s, 1, 1) IN (' ', '\t', '\n', '\r') OR SUBSTRING(s, -1, 1) IN (' ', '\t', '\n', '\r'))
;

# test
SELECT
    NOT(has_leading_or_trailing_whitespace(@s_normal     )) #=> 1 (PASS)
  ,     has_leading_or_trailing_whitespace(@s_ws_leading )  #=> 1 (PASS)
  ,     has_leading_or_trailing_whitespace(@s_ws_trailing)  #=> 1 (PASS)
  ,     has_leading_or_trailing_whitespace(@s_ws_both    )  #=> 1 (PASS)
;