T-SQL Space Before Capital Letters
CLR and regular expressions or 26 replace statements a case sensitive collate clause and a trim.
This function combines previous answers. Selectively choose to preserve adjacent CAPS:
CREATE FUNCTION SpaceBeforeCap (
@InputString NVARCHAR(MAX),
@PreserveAdjacentCaps BIT
)
RETURNS NVARCHAR(MAX)
AS
BEGIN
DECLARE
@i INT, @j INT,
@previous NCHAR, @current NCHAR, @next NCHAR,
@result NVARCHAR(MAX)
SELECT
@i = 1,
@j = LEN(@InputString),
@result = ''
WHILE @i <= @j
BEGIN
SELECT
@previous = SUBSTRING(@InputString,@i-1,1),
@current = SUBSTRING(@InputString,@i+0,1),
@next = SUBSTRING(@InputString,@i+1,1)
IF @current = UPPER(@current) COLLATE Latin1_General_CS_AS
BEGIN
-- Add space if Current is UPPER
-- and either Previous or Next is lower or user chose not to preserve adjacent caps
-- and Previous or Current is not already a space
IF @current = UPPER(@current) COLLATE Latin1_General_CS_AS
AND (
@previous <> UPPER(@previous) COLLATE Latin1_General_CS_AS
OR @next <> UPPER(@next) collate Latin1_General_CS_AS
OR @PreserveAdjacentCaps = 0
)
AND @previous <> ' '
AND @current <> ' '
SET @result = @result + ' '
END
SET @result = @result + @current
SET @i = @i + 1
END
RETURN @result
END
GO
SELECT dbo.SpaceBeforeCap('ThisIsASampleDBString', 1)
GO
SELECT dbo.SpaceBeforeCap('ThisIsASampleDBString', 0)
Assuming SQL Server 2005 or later, this modified from code taken here: http://www.kodyaz.com/articles/case-sensitive-sql-split-function.aspx
CREATE FUNCTION SpaceBeforeCap
(
@str nvarchar(max)
)
returns nvarchar(max)
as
begin
declare @i int, @j int
declare @returnval nvarchar(max)
set @returnval = ''
select @i = 1, @j = len(@str)
declare @w nvarchar(max)
while @i <= @j
begin
if substring(@str,@i,1) = UPPER(substring(@str,@i,1)) collate Latin1_General_CS_AS
begin
if @w is not null
set @returnval = @returnval + ' ' + @w
set @w = substring(@str,@i,1)
end
else
set @w = @w + substring(@str,@i,1)
set @i = @i + 1
end
if @w is not null
set @returnval = @returnval + ' ' + @w
return ltrim(@returnval)
end
This can then be called just as you have suggested above.
This will add spaces only if the previous and next character is lowercase. That way 'MyABCAnalysis' will be 'My ABC Analysis'.
I added a check for a previous space too. Since some of our strings are prefixed with 'GR_' and some also contain underscores, we can use the replace function as follows:
select dbo.GR_SpaceBeforeCap(replace('GR_ABCAnalysis_Test','_',' ')) Returns 'GR ABC Analysis Test'
CREATE FUNCTION GR_SpaceBeforeCap (
@str nvarchar(max)
)
returns nvarchar(max)
as
begin
declare
@i int, @j int
, @cp nchar, @c0 nchar, @c1 nchar
, @result nvarchar(max)
select
@i = 1
, @j = len(@str)
, @result = ''
while @i <= @j
begin
select
@cp = substring(@str,@i-1,1)
, @c0 = substring(@str,@i+0,1)
, @c1 = substring(@str,@i+1,1)
if @c0 = UPPER(@c0) collate Latin1_General_CS_AS
begin
-- Add space if Current is UPPER
-- and either Previous or Next is lower
-- and Previous or Current is not already a space
if @c0 = UPPER(@c0) collate Latin1_General_CS_AS
and (
@cp <> UPPER(@cp) collate Latin1_General_CS_AS
or @c1 <> UPPER(@c1) collate Latin1_General_CS_AS
)
and @cp <> ' '
and @c0 <> ' '
set @result = @result + ' '
end -- if @co
set @result = @result + @c0
set @i = @i + 1
end -- while
return @result
end