Re: Strange whitespace hard to trim off

C Chang wrote:

> DA Morgan wrote:
> >
> > C Chang wrote:
> >
> > > Mark D Powell wrote:
> > > >
> > > > C Chang <cschang_at_maxinter.net> wrote in message news:<3E1CF430.2E7D_at_maxinter.net>...
> > > > > I have a record ( submitted by customer) as M123-1-9. When I count the
> > > > > length of it, it has 9 characters. I use -
> > > > > Select part , LENGTH(RTRIM(part)) p from ... to remove the whitespace
> > > > > off. However I still have 9 after the process. I have tried various
> > > > > chr() such as new-line, space, return character, none of them work. I
> > > > > tested with SUBSTR(part, 8,2) ||'*" and confirmed it to be a whitespace
> > > > > as 9 *. I just could not trim it off. Does anyone have a better
> > > > > suggestion?
> > > > > C Chang
> > > >
> > > > The rtrim function defaults to space (blank) as the character to be
> > > > trimmed. Use the DUMP function to see what the trailing characters
> > > > are and then use RTRIM (other possibilites trim, replace, and
> > > > transform) to eliminate them. See the SQL manual chapter on single
> > > > row functions for the full syntax.
> > > >
> > > > HTH -- Mark D Powell --
> > > Thanks Mark. I never use the DUMP function and I will try. I have
> > > tried with the RTRIM function (LTRIM as well) but it won't trim off the
> > > whitespace, because the LENGTH(RTRIM(...)) gave the same lenght as
> > > before. By the way, I have Oracle 8.1.6 on NT 4. as example:
> > >
> > > SELECT part, SUBSTR(part, 9,2) ||'*' c, LENGTH(PART) l,
> > > LENGTH(RTRIM(part) pl FROM ...
> > >
> > > part c l pl
> > > ---------- ---- ---- ----
> > > MS123-1-9 9 * 10 10
> > >
> > > C chang
> >
> > Using your example above you could try this:
> >
> > SELECT ASCII(SUBSTR(part,2,1) FROM ...
> >
> > That will give you the ASCII number of whatever character is there.
> >
> > Daniel Morgan
> Thankss DA. I used DUMP function to find out the special character. It
> is chr(160), which is the whitespace (&nbsp;) been used in HTML. I can
> RTRIM it off now. However, I need to find out how it got in at first.
>
> C Chang

Likely it got there because someone was cutting or copying and pasting from a web site where it is very commonly put in by MS FrontPage jsut about any time a user hits the spacebar (especially older versions).

Dan Morgan Received on Sun Jan 12 2003 - 16:41:04 CST