Query Assistance - Sum numbers in an Alphanumeric field

Question

Hi,
I am trying to write a SQL statement that will sum the numeric values in a field that contains both numeric and letters.
Here is an example of the data I am working with-
Table Name: mydata
SSN Age Name
123456789 25 Years John
123456789 48 Years Mary
909129456 52 Years Alice
What I want to do is sum the total age of all people with the same social security number- e.g. 123456789 exists twice and the total of the ages is 73. The result I am trying to extrpolate using SQL is 73 without the word years included.
Does anyone have an idea how I could write such a standard SQL statement?
Thanks!!
Mac
Message was edited by: mac
user623512

Answer 1

If there is always only one natural number inside the age column, then:
SQL> create table mydata (ssn,age,name)
  2  as
  3  select 123456789, '25 Years', 'John' from dual union all
  4  select 123456789, '48 Years', 'Mary' from dual union all
  5  select 909129456, '52 Years', 'Alice' from dual
  6  /
Tabel is aangemaakt.
SQL> select ssn
  2       , sum(to_number(regexp_replace(age,'[^[0-9]]*|(.)','\1'))) sum_age
  3    from mydata
  4   group by ssn
  5  /
       SSN    SUM_AGE
123456789         73
909129456         52
2 rijen zijn geselecteerd.If all data is in the age column is a number followed by the string ' Years', then a regular SUBSTR will do as well.
Regards,
Rob.