Re: Removing whitespace using regexp_replace

Thomas Kellerer <spam_eater(at)gmx(dot)net> schrieb:

> Hi,
>
> I have a column with the datatype "text" that may contain leading
> whitespace (tabs, spaces newlines, ...) and I would like to remove them all
> (ideally leading and trailing).

You can use trim() for that:

select 'x' || trim(both '\t' from trim(both ' ' from ' \t\tfoo bar ')) || 'x';

(for testing with 'x' around the result)

>
> I tried
>
> SELECT regexp_replace(myfield, '\A\s*', '')
> FROM mytable;

For regexp_replace() you need an extra parameter 'g' like below:

test=*# select 'x' || regexp_replace(regexp_replace(' \t\tfoo bar ', '^[ \t]+','','g'),'[ \t]+$','','g') || 'x';
^^^ ^^^

Andreas
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