SQL - PATINDEX() Function

---

---

The SQL PATINDEX() function is used to retrieve the position of the pattern in the expression. It accepts two parameters, representing the pattern and the expression and returns the starting position of the first occurrence of the given pattern in the specified column. This function returns 0 if the specified pattern is not found in the expression.

The search performed using this function is case insensitive i.e the same character in different cases ("a" and "A") is considered as one. The first position in the expression is started at 1.

The expression could be a string or the name of a column, if We pass the name of the column as a parameter, this function returns the index of the pattern in each column (0 if the pattern doesn't occurs).

Syntax

Following is the syntax of PATINDEX() Function −

PATINDEX('pattern', expression )  

Parameters

• pattern − An expression containing the sequence of characters to be found.

• expression − A string or the name of the column for which you need to find the pattern index.

Example

The following SELECT query displays the PATINDEX of the word ‘Ocean’ in the given string

SELECT PATINDEX( '%OCEAN%', 'PACIFIC OCEAN') AS PATINDEX_OCEAN;  

Output

Following is the output of the above query −

+----------------+
| PATINDEX_OCEAN |
+----------------+
|       9        |
+----------------+

Example

The following SELECT query returns the PATINDEX of the string 'Manufacturing Company' in the original string.

SELECT PATINDEX( '%Educate_Company%', 'Tutorialspoint is the Online Educate Company') AS PATINDEX_Educate_Company; 

Output

Following is the output of the above query −

+-------------------------+
|PATINDEX_Educate_Company |
+-------------------------+
|         30              |
+-------------------------+

Example

The following SELECT query displays the PATINDEX of the character ‘T’ in the original string.

SELECT PATINDEX(  '%T%', 'TUTORIALSPOINT')AS PATINDEX_T;  

Output

Following is the output of the above query −

+-----------+
|PATINDEX_T |
+-----------+
|    1      |
+-----------+

Example

The following SELECT query displays the PATINDEX where the character we are giving is not present in the original string, so it returns 0.

SELECT PATINDEX(  '%B%', 'TUTORIALSPOINT')AS PATINDEX_B;  

Output

Following is the output of the above query −

+-----------+
|PATINDEX_B |
+-----------+
|    0      |
+-----------+

Example

You can pass the table column as an argument to the PATINDEX() function to convert the character or string into a PATINDEX () Function. Assume we have created a table with the name Customers using the CREATE statement as follows −

create table CUSTOMERS(
   ID INT NOT NULL, 
   NAME VARCHAR(15) NOT NULL, 
   AGE INT NOT NULL, 
   ADDRESS CHAR(25), 
   SALARY DECIMAL(10, 4), PRIMARY KEY(ID)
);

Now let's insert seven records into the customers table using the INSERT statement as follows:−

insert INTO CUSTOMERS(ID, NAME, AGE, ADDRESS, SALARY) VALUES(1, 'Ramesh', 32, 'Ahmedabad', 2000.00);
insert INTO CUSTOMERS(ID, NAME, AGE, ADDRESS, SALARY) VALUES(2, 'Khilan', 25, 'Delhi', 1500.00);
insert INTO CUSTOMERS(ID, NAME, AGE, ADDRESS, SALARY) VALUES(3, 'kaushik', 23, 'Kota', 2000.00);
insert INTO CUSTOMERS(ID, NAME, AGE, ADDRESS, SALARY) VALUES(4, 'Chaitali', 25, 'Mumbai', 6500.00);
insert INTO CUSTOMERS(ID, NAME, AGE, ADDRESS, SALARY) VALUES(5, 'Hardik', 27, 'Bhopal', 8500.00);
insert INTO CUSTOMERS(ID, NAME, AGE, ADDRESS, SALARY) VALUES(6, 'Komal', 22, 'MP', 4500.00);
insert INTO CUSTOMERS(ID, NAME, AGE, ADDRESS, SALARY) VALUES(7, 'Muffy', 24, 'Indore', 10000.00);

The following SELECT query uses the PATINDEX() function with the Name column of the above CUSTOMERS table.

SELECT NAME, PATINDEX('%a%', NAME) AS PATINDEX_a FROM CUSTOMERS;  

Output

Following is the output of the above query −

+---------+---------------+
|   NAME  |  PATINDEX_a   |
+---------+---------------+               
|  Ramesh |      2        |
|  Khilan |      5        |
|  kaushik|      2        |
| Chaitali|      3        |
|  Hardik |      2        |
|  Komal  |      4        |
|  Muffy  |      0        |
+---------+---------------+

Example

The following SELECT query uses the LOWER function with the NAME, ADDRESS column of the above CUSTOMERS table.

SELECT NAME, PATINDEX('%i%', NAME) AS PATINDEX_i, ADDRESS,  PATINDEX('%a%', ADDRESS) AS PATINDEX_a  FROM CUSTOMERS;

Output

Following is the output of the above query −

+---------+---------------+-----------+------------+
|   NAME  |  PATINDEX_i   | ADDRESS   | PATINDEX_a |
+---------+---------------+-----------+------------+            
|  Ramesh |      0        | Ahmedabad |    1       |
|  Khilan |      3        | Delhi     |    0       |
|  kaushik|      6        | kota      |    4       |
| Chaitali|      4        | Mumbai    |    5       |
|  Hardik |      5        | Bhopal    |    5       |
|  Komal  |      0        | MP        |    0       |
|  Muffy  |      0        | Indore    |    0       |
+---------+---------------+-----------+------------+