Removing Non-numeric characters from Alpha-numeric string

Question

Hi,
I have one column in which i have Alpha-numeric data like
COLUMN X
[phone]
1-567-987-7655
so on.
I want to remove Non-numeric characters from above (space,'(',')',+,........)
i want to write something generic (suppose some function to which i pass the column)
thanks in advance,
Mandip

Answer 1

This variation uses the like operators pattern recognition to remove non alphanumeric characters. It also
keeps decimals.
Code Snippet
CREATE FUNCTION dbo.RemoveChars(@Str varchar(1000))
RETURNS VARCHAR(1000)
BEGIN
declare @NewStr varchar(1000),
@i int
set @i = 1
set @NewStr = ''
while @i <= len(@str)
begin
--grab digits or (| in regex) decimal
if substring(@str,@i,1) like '%[0-9|.]%'
begin
set @NewStr = @NewStr + substring(@str,@i,1)
end
else
begin
set @NewStr = @NewStr
end
set @i = @i + 1
end
RETURN Rtrim(Ltrim(@NewStr))
END
GO
Code to validate:
Code Snippet
declare @t table(
TestStr varchar(100)
insert into @t values ('+91 (8.76) \098 6789');
insert into @t values ('1-567-987-7655');
select dbo.RemoveChars(TestStr)
from @t