In the past, when doing global search and replaces across text fields in SQL server, I'd been taking the path of least resistance and just writing ASP.NET pages to loop through and performing .Replace() on the SQL column in question.

Of course a devoted programmer, or at least one with more time on their hands, would have instead spent the time trying to find a better way to skin that cat. Well, courtesy of Google, I think I've found one. This article from SQLTeam.com all but handed me the answer. Since you can't use the TSQL REPLACE function against a TEXT (or NTEXT) column the code below will work using UPDATETEXT instead:

   1: /*

   2: *

   3: * Search & Replace 

   4: * Use Ctrl+Shift+M to replace template values

   5: *

   6: */

   7:  

   8: set xact_abort on

   9: begin tran

  10:  

  11: declare @otxt varchar(1000)

  12: set @otxt = '<string1, text, text to be replaced>'

  13:  

  14: declare @ntxt varchar(1000)

  15: set @ntxt = '<string2, text, replacing text>'

  16:  

  17: declare @txtlen int

  18: set @txtlen = len(@otxt)

  19:  

  20: declare @ptr binary(16)

  21: declare @pos int

  22: declare @<string3, text, name of Unique Row ID> int

  23:  

  24: declare curs cursor local fast_forward

  25: for

  26: select 

  27:     <string3, text, name of Unique Row ID>,

  28:     textptr(<field_name, sysname, target text field>),

  29:     charindex(@otxt, <field_name, sysname, target text field>)-1

  30: from 

  31:     <table_name, sysname, target table> 

  32: where 

  33:     <field_name, sysname, target text field> 

  34: like 

  35:     '%' + @otxt +'%'

  36:  

  37: open curs

  38:  

  39: fetch next from curs into @<string3, text, name of Unique Row ID>, @ptr, @pos

  40:  

  41: while @@fetch_status = 0

  42: begin

  43:     print 'Text found in row id=' + cast(@<string3, text, name of Unique Row ID> as varchar) + ' at pos=' + cast(@pos as varchar)

  44:     

  45:     updatetext <table_name, sysname, target table> .<field_name, sysname, target text field> @ptr @pos @txtlen @ntxt

  46:  

  47:     fetch next from curs into @<string3, text, name of Unique Row ID>, @ptr, @pos    

  48: end

  49:  

  50: close curs

  51: deallocate curs

  52:  

  53: commit tran

Of course if you compare the code above to that found in the article linked at top, you'll notice some small discrepancies. I quickly discovered that the original code assumed that the tables unique identifier was named id. This wasn't the case for my problem at hand and I figured that if I save this out as a SQL file, the problem will come up again so I changed every instance of "id" to be "<string3, text, name of Unique Row ID>". This little snippet of code populates the "Specifiy Values for Template Parameters" screen that pops up when you press Ctrl+Shift+M from within SQL Mangler.

One other note is that his only changes the FIRST instance of the code in any single record so it is great for doing your search and replace where there is only one instance to be replaced in one or more records. You can use this code to replace multiple instances of the search string in a single record but you'll need to run it multiple times until the record is no longer found.

Do you have a better way of doing this? If so, let me know! Post your LEGITIMATE comment using the comment area below.