Re: [HACKERS] substring extraction

Try this:

--returns the $2 field delimited by $3
drop function field(text,int,text);
create function field(text,int,text) returns text as
'declare       string text;       pos int2:= 0;       pos1 int2:= 0;       times int2:= 0;       totpos int2:= 0;
begin       times:= $2 - 1;       string:= $1;       while totpos < times loop               string:=
substr(string,pos+1);              pos:= strpos(string,$3);               totpos:= totpos + 1;       end loop;
string:=substr(string,pos+1);       pos1:= strpos(string,$3);       return substr(string,1,pos1 - 1);end;
 
' language 'plpgsql';

select field('primo.secondo.terzo',1,'.');
field
-----
primo
(1 row)

select field('primo.secondo.terzo',2,'.');
field
-------
secondo
(1 row)

select field('primo.secondo.terzo',3,'.');
field
-----
terzo
(1 row)


José



Karel Zak - Zakkr ha scritto:

> Hi,
>
> I need in the SELECT query extract substring 'cccc' from string
> 'aaa.bbbbb.cccc.dd.eee' (extract third field from string if
> delimiter is '.').
>
> It is easy if I know where is begin/end of 'cccc' and I can
> use the substring() function:
>
> select substring('aaa.bbbbb.cccc.dd.eee' from 11 for 4);
> substr
> ------
> cccc
>
> But how extract it if I don't know where is position of the second
> and third '.'?
>
> Yes, I know the function position() or textpos(), but this return first
> a position of the substring...
>
> For this exist nice UN*X command "cut -f3 -d." , but how make it in
> SQL?
>
> I ask about it, because I write for me this as new function in C, but
> I'm not sure if not exist other (better) way for it.
>
>                                                 Karel
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Karel Zak <zakkr@zf.jcu.cz>                      http://home.zf.jcu.cz/~zakkr/
>
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