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layout: section title: “Beam ZetaSQL string functions” section_menu: section-menu/sdks.html permalink: /documentation/dsls/sql/zetasql/string-functions/

Beam ZetaSQL string functions

This page documents the ZetaSQL string functions supported by Beam ZetaSQL.

These string functions work on STRING data. STRING values must be well-formed UTF-8. All string comparisons are done byte-by-byte, without regard to Unicode canonical equivalence.

Operator syntax	Description
CHAR_LENGTH(value)	Returns the length of the string in characters
CHARACTER_LENGTH(value)	Synonym for CHAR_LENGTH
CONCAT(value1[, ...])	Concatenates up to five values into a single result
ENDS_WITH(value1, value2)	Returns TRUE if the second value is a suffix of the first
LTRIM(value1[, value2])	Identical to TRIM, but only removes leading characters.
REPLACE(original_value, from_value, to_value)	Replaces all occurrences of from_value with to_value in original_value
REVERSE(value)	Returns the reverse of the input string
RTRIM(value1[, value2])	Identical to TRIM, but only removes trailing characters
STARTS_WITH(value1, value2)	Returns TRUE if the second value is a prefix of the first.
SUBSTR(value, position[, length])	Returns a substring of the supplied value
TRIM(value1[, value2])	Removes all leading and trailing characters that match value2
{:.table}

CHAR_LENGTH

CHAR_LENGTH(value)

Description

Returns the length of the STRING in characters.

Return type

INT64

Examples

Table example:

+----------------+
| characters     |
+----------------+
| абвгд          |
+----------------+

SELECT
  characters,
  CHAR_LENGTH(characters) AS char_length_example
FROM example;

+------------+---------------------+
| characters | char_length_example |
+------------+---------------------+
| абвгд      |                   5 |
+------------+---------------------+

CHARACTER_LENGTH

CHARACTER_LENGTH(value)

Description

Synonym for CHAR_LENGTH.

Return type

INT64

Examples

Table example:

+----------------+
| characters     |
+----------------+
| абвгд          |
+----------------+

SELECT
  characters,
  CHARACTER_LENGTH(characters) AS char_length_example
FROM example;

+------------+---------------------+
| characters | char_length_example |
+------------+---------------------+
| абвгд      |                   5 |
+------------+---------------------+

CONCAT

CONCAT(value1[, ...])

Description

Concatenates up to five values into a single result.

Return type

STRING

Examples

Table Employees:

+-------------+-----------+
| first_name  | last_name |
+-------------+-----------+
| John        | Doe       |
| Jane        | Smith     |
| Joe         | Jackson   |
+-------------+-----------+

SELECT
  CONCAT(first_name, " ", last_name)
  AS full_name
FROM Employees;

+---------------------+
| full_name           |
+---------------------+
| John Doe            |
| Jane Smith          |
| Joe Jackson         |
+---------------------+

ENDS_WITH

ENDS_WITH(value1, value2)

Description

Takes two values. Returns TRUE if the second value is a suffix of the first.

Return type

BOOL

Examples

Table items:

+----------------+
| item           |
+----------------+
| apple          |
| banana         |
| orange         |
+----------------+

SELECT
  ENDS_WITH(item, "e") as example
FROM items;

+---------+
| example |
+---------+
|    True |
|   False |
|    True |
+---------+

LTRIM

LTRIM(value1[, value2])

Description

Identical to TRIM, but only removes leading characters.

Return type

STRING

Examples

Table items:

+----------------+
| item           |
+----------------+
|    apple       |
|    banana      |
|    orange      |
+----------------+

SELECT
  CONCAT("#", LTRIM(item), "#") as example
FROM items;

+-------------+
| example     |
+-------------+
| #apple   #  |
| #banana   # |
| #orange   # |
+-------------+


Table items:

+----------------+
| item           |
+----------------+
| ***apple***    |
| ***banana***   |
| ***orange***   |
+----------------+

SELECT
  LTRIM(item, "*") as example
FROM items;

+-----------+
| example   |
+-----------+
| apple***  |
| banana*** |
| orange*** |
+-----------+


Table items:

+----------------+
| item           |
+----------------+
| xxxapplexxx    |
| yyybananayyy   |
| zzzorangezzz   |
| xyzpearzyz     |
+----------------+

SELECT
  LTRIM(item, "xyz") as example
FROM items;

+-----------+
| example   |
+-----------+
| applexxx  |
| bananayyy |
| orangezzz |
| pearxyz   |
+-----------+

REPLACE

REPLACE(original_value, from_value, to_value)

Description

Replaces all occurrences of from_value with to_value in original_value. If from_value is empty, no replacement is made.

Return type

STRING

Examples

+--------------------+
| dessert            |
+--------------------+
| apple pie          |
| blackberry pie     |
| cherry pie         |
+--------------------+

SELECT
  REPLACE (dessert, "pie", "cobbler") as example
FROM desserts;

+--------------------+
| example            |
+--------------------+
| apple cobbler      |
| blackberry cobbler |
| cherry cobbler     |
+--------------------+

REVERSE

REVERSE(value)

Description

Returns the reverse of the input STRING.

Return type

STRING

Examples

WITH example AS (
  SELECT "foo" AS sample_string UNION ALL
  SELECT "абвгд" AS sample_string
)
SELECT
  sample_string,
  REVERSE(sample_string) AS reverse_string
FROM example;

+---------------+----------------+
| sample_string | reverse_string |
+---------------+----------------+
| foo           | oof            |
| абвгд         | дгвба          |
+---------------+----------------+

RTRIM

RTRIM(value1[, value2])

Description

Identical to TRIM, but only removes trailing characters.

Return type

STRING

Examples

Table items:

+----------------+
| item           |
+----------------+
| ***apple***    |
| ***banana***   |
| ***orange***   |
+----------------+

SELECT
  RTRIM(item, "*") as example
FROM items;

+-----------+
| example   |
+-----------+
| ***apple  |
| ***banana |
| ***orange |
+-----------+


Table items:

+----------------+
| item           |
+----------------+
| applexxx       |
| bananayyy      |
| orangezzz      |
| pearxyz        |
+----------------+

SELECT
  RTRIM(item, "xyz") as example
FROM items;

+---------+
| example |
+---------+
| apple   |
| banana  |
| orange  |
| pear    |
+---------+

STARTS_WITH

STARTS_WITH(value1, value2)

Description

Takes two values. Returns TRUE if the second value is a prefix of the first.

Return type

BOOL

Examples

SELECT
  STARTS_WITH(item, "b") as example
FROM (
  SELECT "foo" as item
  UNION ALL SELECT "bar" as item
  UNION ALL SELECT "baz" as item) AS items;


+---------+
| example |
+---------+
|   False |
|    True |
|    True |
+---------+

SUBSTR

SUBSTR(value, position[, length])

Description

Returns a substring of the supplied value. The position argument is an integer specifying the starting position of the substring, with position = 1 indicating the first character or byte. The length argument is the maximum number of characters for STRING arguments.

If position is negative, the function counts from the end of value, with -1 indicating the last character.

If position is a position off the left end of the STRING (position = 0 or position < -LENGTH(value)), the function starts from position = 1. If length exceeds the length of value, returns fewer than length characters.

If length is less than 0, the function returns an error.

Return type

STRING

Examples

Table items:

+----------------+
| item           |
+----------------+
| apple          |
| banana         |
| orange         |
+----------------+

SELECT
  SUBSTR(item, 2) as example
FROM items;

+---------+
| example |
+---------+
| pple    |
| anana   |
| range   |
+---------+


Table items:

+----------------+
| item           |
+----------------+
| apple          |
| banana         |
| orange         |
+----------------+

SELECT
  SUBSTR(item, 2, 2) as example
FROM items;

+---------+
| example |
+---------+
| pp      |
| an      |
| ra      |
+---------+


Table items:

+----------------+
| item           |
+----------------+
| apple          |
| banana         |
| orange         |
+----------------+

SELECT
  SUBSTR(item, -2) as example
FROM items;

+---------+
| example |
+---------+
| le      |
| na      |
| ge      |
+---------+

TRIM

TRIM(value1[, value2])

Description

Removes all leading and trailing characters that match value2. If value2 is not specified, all leading and trailing whitespace characters (as defined by the Unicode standard) are removed.

If value2 contains more than one character, the function removes all leading or trailing characters contained in value2.

Return type

STRING

Examples

Table items:

+----------------+
| item           |
+----------------+
|    apple       |
|    banana      |
|    orange      |
+----------------+

SELECT
  CONCAT("#", TRIM(item), "#") as example
FROM items;

+----------+
| example  |
+----------+
| #apple#  |
| #banana# |
| #orange# |
+----------+


Table items:

+----------------+
| item           |
+----------------+
| ***apple***    |
| ***banana***   |
| ***orange***   |
+----------------+

SELECT
  TRIM(item, "*") as example
FROM items;

+---------+
| example |
+---------+
| apple   |
| banana  |
| orange  |
+---------+


Table items:

+----------------+
| item           |
+----------------+
| xxxapplexxx    |
| yyybananayyy   |
| zzzorangezzz   |
| xyzpearxyz     |
+----------------+

SELECT
  TRIM(item, "xyz") as example
FROM items;

+---------+
| example |
+---------+
| apple   |
| banana  |
| orange  |
| pear    |
+---------+