How to Remove Only the First . from a Text Column in SQLite

Описание: Learn a simple SQLite trick to remove only the first period character from a text column without affecting other periods.
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This video is based on the question https://stackoverflow.com/q/79527341/ asked by the user 'IamBeginner' ( https://stackoverflow.com/u/15221004/ ) and on the answer https://stackoverflow.com/a/79527372/ provided by the user 'Guillaume Outters' ( https://stackoverflow.com/u/1346819/ ) at 'Stack Overflow' website. Thanks to these great users and Stackexchange community for their contributions.

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The Problem: Removing Only the First Period in SQLite

You have a SQLite table with a column of strings containing multiple periods (.), such as:

[[See Video to Reveal this Text or Code Snippet]]

The goal is to remove only the first period from each string, producing:

[[See Video to Reveal this Text or Code Snippet]]

Why Common Approaches Fail

A common attempt might look like this:

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At first glance, substr(num, 2, 1) returns the second character (which happens to be .), so this translates to:

[[See Video to Reveal this Text or Code Snippet]]

This removes all periods from the string, not just the first.

The Correct and Simple Solution

Instead of using REPLACE, leverage substr to reconstruct the string without the first period:

[[See Video to Reveal this Text or Code Snippet]]

Explanation:

substr(num, 1, 1): Takes the first character (before the first period).

substr(num, 3): Concatenates the string starting from the third character onward, effectively skipping the second character (the first period).

Notes

This method assumes the first period is at position 2.

If the position of the first period varies, a more dynamic approach using SQL functions or procedural code would be needed.

Summary

To remove just the first period in a SQLite text column:

Avoid REPLACE because it affects all occurrences.

Use substr to piece together the string around the first period.

This simple approach avoids removing unintended periods and keeps the rest of your data intact.