REPLACE function [String]

Replaces a string with another string, and returns the new results.

Syntax
REPLACE( original-string, search-string, replace-string )
Parameters

If any argument is NULL, the function returns NULL.

  • original-string   The string to be searched. This can be any length.

  • search-string   The string to be searched for and replaced with replace-string. This string is limited to 255 bytes. If search-string is an empty string, the original string is returned unchanged.

  • replace-string   The replacement string, which replaces search-string. This can be any length. If replacement-string is an empty string, all occurrences of search-string are deleted.

Returns

LONG VARCHAR

LONG NVARCHAR

Remarks

This function replaces all occurrences.

Comparisons are case-sensitive on case-sensitive databases.

This function supports NCHAR inputs and/or outputs.

See also
Standards and compatibility
  • SQL/2003   Vendor extension.

Example

The following statement returns the value xx.def.xx.ghi.

SELECT REPLACE( 'abc.def.abc.ghi', 'abc', 'xx' );

The following statement generates a result set containing ALTER PROCEDURE statements which, when executed, would repair stored procedures that reference a table that has been renamed. (To be useful, the table name must be unique.)

SELECT REPLACE(
   REPLACE( proc_defn, 'OldTableName', 'NewTableName' ),
   'CREATE PROCEDURE',
   'ALTER PROCEDURE')
FROM SYS.SYSPROCEDURE
WHERE proc_defn LIKE '%OldTableName%';