This section describes functions and operators for examining and manipulating string values. Strings in this context include values of all the types character, character varying, and text. Unless otherwise noted, all of the functions listed below work on all of these types, but be wary of potential effects of the automatic padding when using the character type. Generally, the functions described here also work on data of non-string types by converting that data to a string representation first. Some functions also exist natively for the bit-string types.
SQL defines some string functions with a special syntax where certain key words rather than commas are used to separate the arguments. Details are in Tabela 9-5. These functions are also implemented using the regular syntax for function invocation. (See Tabela 9-6.)
Tabela 9-5. SQL String Functions and Operators
| Function | Return Type | Description | Example | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| string || string | text | String concatenation | 'Post' || 'greSQL' | PostgreSQL |
| bit_length(string) | int | Number of bits in string | bit_length('jose') | 32 |
| char_length(string) or character_length(string) | int | Number of characters in string | char_length('jose') | 4 |
| convert(string using conversion_name) | text | Change encoding using specified conversion name. Conversions can be defined by CREATE CONVERSION. Also there are some pre-defined conversion names. See Tabela 9-7 for available conversion names. | convert('PostgreSQL' using iso_8859_1_to_utf8) | 'PostgreSQL' in UTF8 (Unicode, 8-bit) encoding |
| lower(string) | text | Convert string to lower case | lower('TOM') | tom |
| octet_length(string) | int | Number of bytes in string | octet_length('jose') | 4 |
| overlay(string placing string from int [for int]) | text | Replace substring | overlay('Txxxxas' placing 'hom' from 2 for 4) | Thomas |
| position(substring in string) | int | Location of specified substring | position('om' in 'Thomas') | 3 |
| substring(string [from int] [for int]) | text | Extract substring | substring('Thomas' from 2 for 3) | hom |
| substring(string from padrão) | text | Extract substring matching POSIX regular expression. See Seção 9.7 for more information on pattern matching. | substring('Thomas' from '...$') | mas |
| substring(string from padrão for escape) | text | Extract substring matching SQL regular expression. See Seção 9.7 for more information on pattern matching. | substring('Thomas' from '%#"o_a#"_' for '#') | oma |
| trim([leading | trailing | both] [characters] from string) | text | Remove the longest string containing only the characters (a space by default) from the start/end/both ends of the string | trim(both 'x' from 'xTomxx') | Tom |
| upper(string) | text | Convert string to uppercase | upper('tom') | TOM |
Additional string manipulation functions are available and are listed in Tabela 9-6. Some of them are used internally to implement the SQL-standard string functions listed in Tabela 9-5.
Tabela 9-6. Other String Functions
| Function | Return Type | Description | Example | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ascii(string) | int | ASCII code of the first byte of the argument | ascii('x') | 120 |
| btrim(string text [, characters text]) | text | Remove the longest string consisting only of characters in characters (a space by default) from the start and end of string | btrim('xyxtrimyyx', 'xy') | trim |
| chr(int) | text | Character with the given ASCII code | chr(65) | A |
| convert(string text, [src_encoding name,] dest_encoding name) | text | Convert string to dest_encoding. The original encoding is specified by src_encoding. If src_encoding is omitted, database encoding is assumed. | convert( 'text_in_utf8', 'UTF8', 'LATIN1') | text_in_utf8 represented in ISO 8859-1 encoding |
| decode(string text, type text) | bytea | Decode binary data from string previously encoded with encode. Parameter type is same as in encode. | decode('MTIzAAE=', 'base64') | 123\000\001 |
| encode(data bytea, type text) | text | Encode binary data to ASCII-only representation. Supported types are: base64, hex, escape. | encode( '123\\000\\001', 'base64') | MTIzAAE= |
| initcap(string) | text | Convert the first letter of each word to uppercase and the rest to lowercase. Words are sequences of alphanumeric characters separated by non-alphanumeric characters. | initcap('hi THOMAS') | Hi Thomas |
| length(string) | int | Number of characters in string | length('jose') | 4 |
| lpad(string text, length int [, fill text]) | text | Fill up the string to length length by prepending the characters fill (a space by default). If the string is already longer than length then it is truncated (on the right). | lpad('hi', 5, 'xy') | xyxhi |
| ltrim(string text [, characters text]) | text | Remove the longest string containing only characters from characters (a space by default) from the start of string | ltrim('zzzytrim', 'xyz') | trim |
| md5(string) | text | Calculates the MD5 hash of string, returning the result in hexadecimal | md5('abc') | 900150983cd24fb0 d6963f7d28e17f72 |
| pg_client_encoding() | name | Current client encoding name | pg_client_encoding() | SQL_ASCII |
| quote_ident(string) | text | Return the given string suitably quoted to be used as an identifier in an SQL statement string. Quotes are added only if necessary (i.e., if the string contains non-identifier characters or would be case-folded). Embedded quotes are properly doubled. | quote_ident('Foo bar') | "Foo bar" |
| quote_literal(string) | text | Return the given string suitably quoted to be used as a string literal in an SQL statement string. Embedded quotes and backslashes are properly doubled. | quote_literal( 'O\'Reilly') | 'O''Reilly' |
| regexp_replace(string text, pattern text, replacement text [,flags text]) | text | Replace substring matching POSIX regular expression. See Seção 9.7 for more information on pattern matching. | regexp_replace('Thomas', '.[mN]a.', 'M') | ThM |
| repeat(string text, number int) | text | Repeat string the specified number of times | repeat('Pg', 4) | PgPgPgPg |
| replace(string text, from text, to text) | text | Replace all occurrences in string of substring from with substring to | replace( 'abcdefabcdef', 'cd', 'XX') | abXXefabXXef |
| rpad(string text, length int [, fill text]) | text | Fill up the string to length length by appending the characters fill (a space by default). If the string is already longer than length then it is truncated. | rpad('hi', 5, 'xy') | hixyx |
| rtrim(string text [, characters text]) | text | Remove the longest string containing only characters from characters (a space by default) from the end of string | rtrim('trimxxxx', 'x') | trim |
| split_part(string text, delimiter text, field int) | text | Split string on delimiter and return the given field (counting from one) | split_part('abc~@~def~@~ghi', '~@~', 2) | def |
| strpos(string, substring) | int | Location of specified substring (same as position(substring in string), but note the reversed argument order) | strpos('high', 'ig') | 2 |
| substr(string, from [, count]) | text | Extract substring (same as substring(string from from for count)) | substr('alphabet', 3, 2) | ph |
| to_ascii(string text [, encoding text]) | text | Convert string to ASCII from another encoding (only supports conversion from LATIN1, LATIN2, LATIN9, and WIN1250 encodings) | to_ascii('Karel') | Karel |
| to_hex(number int or bigint) | text | Convert number to its equivalent hexadecimal representation | to_hex(2147483647) | 7fffffff |
| translate(string text, from text, to text) | text | Any character in string that matches a character in the from set is replaced by the corresponding character in the to set | translate('12345', '14', 'ax') | a23x5 |
Tabela 9-7. Built-in Conversions
| Conversion Name [a] | Source Encoding | Destination Encoding |
|---|---|---|
| ascii_to_mic | SQL_ASCII | MULE_INTERNAL |
| ascii_to_utf8 | SQL_ASCII | UTF8 |
| big5_to_euc_tw | BIG5 | EUC_TW |
| big5_to_mic | BIG5 | MULE_INTERNAL |
| big5_to_utf8 | BIG5 | UTF8 |
| euc_cn_to_mic | EUC_CN | MULE_INTERNAL |
| euc_cn_to_utf8 | EUC_CN | UTF8 |
| euc_jp_to_mic | EUC_JP | MULE_INTERNAL |
| euc_jp_to_sjis | EUC_JP | SJIS |
| euc_jp_to_utf8 | EUC_JP | UTF8 |
| euc_kr_to_mic | EUC_KR | MULE_INTERNAL |
| euc_kr_to_utf8 | EUC_KR | UTF8 |
| euc_tw_to_big5 | EUC_TW | BIG5 |
| euc_tw_to_mic | EUC_TW | MULE_INTERNAL |
| euc_tw_to_utf8 | EUC_TW | UTF8 |
| gb18030_to_utf8 | GB18030 | UTF8 |
| gbk_to_utf8 | GBK | UTF8 |
| iso_8859_10_to_utf8 | LATIN6 | UTF8 |
| iso_8859_13_to_utf8 | LATIN7 | UTF8 |
| iso_8859_14_to_utf8 | LATIN8 | UTF8 |
| iso_8859_15_to_utf8 | LATIN9 | UTF8 |
| iso_8859_16_to_utf8 | LATIN10 | UTF8 |
| iso_8859_1_to_mic | LATIN1 | MULE_INTERNAL |
| iso_8859_1_to_utf8 | LATIN1 | UTF8 |
| iso_8859_2_to_mic | LATIN2 | MULE_INTERNAL |
| iso_8859_2_to_utf8 | LATIN2 | UTF8 |
| iso_8859_2_to_windows_1250 | LATIN2 | WIN1250 |
| iso_8859_3_to_mic | LATIN3 | MULE_INTERNAL |
| iso_8859_3_to_utf8 | LATIN3 | UTF8 |
| iso_8859_4_to_mic | LATIN4 | MULE_INTERNAL |
| iso_8859_4_to_utf8 | LATIN4 | UTF8 |
| iso_8859_5_to_koi8_r | ISO_8859_5 | KOI8 |
| iso_8859_5_to_mic | ISO_8859_5 | MULE_INTERNAL |
| iso_8859_5_to_utf8 | ISO_8859_5 | UTF8 |
| iso_8859_5_to_windows_1251 | ISO_8859_5 | WIN1251 |
| iso_8859_5_to_windows_866 | ISO_8859_5 | WIN866 |
| iso_8859_6_to_utf8 | ISO_8859_6 | UTF8 |
| iso_8859_7_to_utf8 | ISO_8859_7 | UTF8 |
| iso_8859_8_to_utf8 | ISO_8859_8 | UTF8 |
| iso_8859_9_to_utf8 | LATIN5 | UTF8 |
| johab_to_utf8 | JOHAB | UTF8 |
| koi8_r_to_iso_8859_5 | KOI8 | ISO_8859_5 |
| koi8_r_to_mic | KOI8 | MULE_INTERNAL |
| koi8_r_to_utf8 | KOI8 | UTF8 |
| koi8_r_to_windows_1251 | KOI8 | WIN1251 |
| koi8_r_to_windows_866 | KOI8 | WIN866 |
| mic_to_ascii | MULE_INTERNAL | SQL_ASCII |
| mic_to_big5 | MULE_INTERNAL | BIG5 |
| mic_to_euc_cn | MULE_INTERNAL | EUC_CN |
| mic_to_euc_jp | MULE_INTERNAL | EUC_JP |
| mic_to_euc_kr | MULE_INTERNAL | EUC_KR |
| mic_to_euc_tw | MULE_INTERNAL | EUC_TW |
| mic_to_iso_8859_1 | MULE_INTERNAL | LATIN1 |
| mic_to_iso_8859_2 | MULE_INTERNAL | LATIN2 |
| mic_to_iso_8859_3 | MULE_INTERNAL | LATIN3 |
| mic_to_iso_8859_4 | MULE_INTERNAL | LATIN4 |
| mic_to_iso_8859_5 | MULE_INTERNAL | ISO_8859_5 |
| mic_to_koi8_r | MULE_INTERNAL | KOI8 |
| mic_to_sjis | MULE_INTERNAL | SJIS |
| mic_to_windows_1250 | MULE_INTERNAL | WIN1250 |
| mic_to_windows_1251 | MULE_INTERNAL | WIN1251 |
| mic_to_windows_866 | MULE_INTERNAL | WIN866 |
| sjis_to_euc_jp | SJIS | EUC_JP |
| sjis_to_mic | SJIS | MULE_INTERNAL |
| sjis_to_utf8 | SJIS | UTF8 |
| tcvn_to_utf8 | WIN1258 | UTF8 |
| uhc_to_utf8 | UHC | UTF8 |
| utf8_to_ascii | UTF8 | SQL_ASCII |
| utf8_to_big5 | UTF8 | BIG5 |
| utf8_to_euc_cn | UTF8 | EUC_CN |
| utf8_to_euc_jp | UTF8 | EUC_JP |
| utf8_to_euc_kr | UTF8 | EUC_KR |
| utf8_to_euc_tw | UTF8 | EUC_TW |
| utf8_to_gb18030 | UTF8 | GB18030 |
| utf8_to_gbk | UTF8 | GBK |
| utf8_to_iso_8859_1 | UTF8 | LATIN1 |
| utf8_to_iso_8859_10 | UTF8 | LATIN6 |
| utf8_to_iso_8859_13 | UTF8 | LATIN7 |
| utf8_to_iso_8859_14 | UTF8 | LATIN8 |
| utf8_to_iso_8859_15 | UTF8 | LATIN9 |
| utf8_to_iso_8859_16 | UTF8 | LATIN10 |
| utf8_to_iso_8859_2 | UTF8 | LATIN2 |
| utf8_to_iso_8859_3 | UTF8 | LATIN3 |
| utf8_to_iso_8859_4 | UTF8 | LATIN4 |
| utf8_to_iso_8859_5 | UTF8 | ISO_8859_5 |
| utf8_to_iso_8859_6 | UTF8 | ISO_8859_6 |
| utf8_to_iso_8859_7 | UTF8 | ISO_8859_7 |
| utf8_to_iso_8859_8 | UTF8 | ISO_8859_8 |
| utf8_to_iso_8859_9 | UTF8 | LATIN5 |
| utf8_to_johab | UTF8 | JOHAB |
| utf8_to_koi8_r | UTF8 | KOI8 |
| utf8_to_sjis | UTF8 | SJIS |
| utf8_to_tcvn | UTF8 | WIN1258 |
| utf8_to_uhc | UTF8 | UHC |
| utf8_to_windows_1250 | UTF8 | WIN1250 |
| utf8_to_windows_1251 | UTF8 | WIN1251 |
| utf8_to_windows_1252 | UTF8 | WIN1252 |
| utf8_to_windows_1253 | UTF8 | WIN1253 |
| utf8_to_windows_1254 | UTF8 | WIN1254 |
| utf8_to_windows_1255 | UTF8 | WIN1255 |
| utf8_to_windows_1256 | UTF8 | WIN1256 |
| utf8_to_windows_1257 | UTF8 | WIN1257 |
| utf8_to_windows_866 | UTF8 | WIN866 |
| utf8_to_windows_874 | UTF8 | WIN874 |
| windows_1250_to_iso_8859_2 | WIN1250 | LATIN2 |
| windows_1250_to_mic | WIN1250 | MULE_INTERNAL |
| windows_1250_to_utf8 | WIN1250 | UTF8 |
| windows_1251_to_iso_8859_5 | WIN1251 | ISO_8859_5 |
| windows_1251_to_koi8_r | WIN1251 | KOI8 |
| windows_1251_to_mic | WIN1251 | MULE_INTERNAL |
| windows_1251_to_utf8 | WIN1251 | UTF8 |
| windows_1251_to_windows_866 | WIN1251 | WIN866 |
| windows_1252_to_utf8 | WIN1252 | UTF8 |
| windows_1256_to_utf8 | WIN1256 | UTF8 |
| windows_866_to_iso_8859_5 | WIN866 | ISO_8859_5 |
| windows_866_to_koi8_r | WIN866 | KOI8 |
| windows_866_to_mic | WIN866 | MULE_INTERNAL |
| windows_866_to_utf8 | WIN866 | UTF8 |
| windows_866_to_windows_1251 | WIN866 | WIN |
| windows_874_to_utf8 | WIN874 | UTF8 |
| Notas: a. The conversion names follow a standard naming scheme: The official name of the source encoding with all non-alphanumeric characters replaced by underscores followed by _to_ followed by the equally processed destination encoding name. Therefore the names might deviate from the customary encoding names. |
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| Mathematical Functions and Operators | Acima | Binary String Functions and Operators |
