Special characters in column

1

Hi. I have lines like : ������� ������ MALLs Staff
and also ALUA ZUVSAJA MALLs Staff

when i use this in the column: "where membership_name NOT LIKE '%[^A-Za-z0-9% ]%' COLLATE Greek_CI_AI;" I get the bad characters row but I also get the Other good characters row. The DB is in Greek_CI_AI, if i use a latin collation I do not get the bad characters (that, from my understanding are bad Greek characters)

How can i only select the rotten characters?

Thanks.

2

Hi

Does this help you ?

Please let me know

select replace('������������� MALLs Staff','�','')

3

HI.
Probably I did not make myself clear.
I want the rows that have those characters.

If I do where membership_name like '%���%' COLLATE Greek_CI_AI; will not bring anything.
thanks

4

If it were me who was assigned this task, I would first find the ascii values (this can probably be done much more slick, but this works):

Find ascii values 
with cte1
  as (select max(len(membership_name)) as maxlen
        from yourtable
     )
    ,cte2
  as (select b.n
        from cte1 as a
             cross apply(select row_number() over(order by (select null)) as n
                           from             (values(0),(0),(0),(0),(0),(0),(0),(0),(0),(0)) as cte2_1(n) /*   10 chars */
                                cross apply (values(0),(0),(0),(0),(0),(0),(0),(0),(0),(0)) as cte2_2(n) /*  100 chars */
                                cross apply (values(0),(0),(0),(0),(0),(0),(0),(0),(0),(0)) as cte2_3(n) /* 1000 chars */
                        ) as b
      where b.n<=a.maxlen
     )
select substring(a.membership_name,b.n,1) as letter
      ,ascii(substring(a.membership_name,b.n,1)) as letter_value
  from yourtable as a
       cross apply cte2 as b
 where a.membership_name is not null
   and b.n<=len(a.membership_name)
 group by substring(a.membership_name,b.n,1)
         ,ascii(substring(a.membership_name,b.n,1))
 order by letter_value
;

Then I would look thru the results of the above query, and find the "letter_value" in question, and it is then "easy-peacy" finding the rows (in this ex. I look for value 65 which is the letter A):

Find rows 
select *
  from yourtable
 where membership_name like '%'+char(65)+'%'
;
5

Wow!
I would want to get you in that much trouble.
That is an impressive query that I theoretically know what it does but it is really no use to me.
I brings me 191 values. Some aschii , all the Greek alphabet caps and non caps and letters with tonos and without tonos .
Now, I get a value 63 that looks like the character in question but I get it multiple times:

М 63
ϛ 63
Д 63
� 63
ћ 63
а 63
ј 63
р 63
л 63
63
н 63
? 63
о 63
В 63
е 63
к 63
и 63

This |�|63| looks like the value

If i do this:

 select * from members
 where membership_name like '%'+char(63)+'%' COLLATE Greek_CI_AI;

I get no row at all.

Thanks

6

So, OK at worse I could just fix the rows by hand with the initial select.
I think this is an ascii collation issue with the database gone kookoo so I wouldn't bother.
I'm just not sure that I get all the wrong values with the initial select.
If i do then no problem, I will get their Id an fix them.
If I don't and I get partial values then that would be a problem.