Re: SQL command speed

I didn't see a function that would do what you wanted to do, but
I guess you could do the trimming in a plpgsql function though...
(Since I don't have a 7.0 system to test with, these were only tested
on an old 6.5.1 database)...

create function trimthe(text) returns text as '
begin
if (substr($1, 1, 4) = \'The \' then
return substr($1, 5);
end if;
-- add other prefix checks here...
return $1;
end;
' language 'plpgsql';

and then select ordering by that...

I guess a more general function could be:
create function ltrimstr(text, text) returns text as '
begin
if position($2 in $1) = 1 then
return substr($1, char_length($2)+1);
end if;
return $1;
end;
' language 'plpgsql';

----- Original Message -----
From: "Ross J. Reedstrom" <reedstrm(at)wallace(dot)ece(dot)rice(dot)edu>
To: <pgsql-sql(at)postgresql(dot)org>
Sent: Thursday, May 18, 2000 1:39 PM
Subject: Re: [SQL] SQL command speed

> Hey crew:
> I've got a relatively simple SQL problem. In a db backed web site
> we're building, I'd like to fill a dropdown box with the contents of a
> validation table, in this case research institutions. I want to sort them
> alphabetically, but using "library rules": i.e. skip inital articles,
> since we've a few 'The University of Foo" and "The Johns Hopkins
> University", for example.
>
> I thought I had it with this SQL:
>
> SELECT InstName from Institutions ORDER BY ltrim (InstName, 'The');
>
> Looked good, until I found 'Texas A&M University' sorting below York.
>
> Seems ltrim() removes inital charaters from the set of charaters, not
> inital strings, so I was sorting on 'xas A&M University'
>
> Anyone have some magic solution for this?