Message-ID: <468000ED.60107@tiggs.net>
Date: Mon, 25 Jun 2007 12:52:45 -0500
From: Charley Tiggs <lists@tiggs.net>
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To: Joshua <joshua@joshuaneil.com>
Cc: pgsql-novice@postgresql.org
Subject: Re: yet another simple SQL question
References: <467FFEF9.5050603@joshuaneil.com>
In-Reply-To: <467FFEF9.5050603@joshuaneil.com>
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Most of these commands are available within the online documentation:

http://www.postgresql.org/docs/8.2/interactive/functions.html

That said, you might try:

UPDATE mytable SET firstname = TRIM(SUBSTRING(firstname,1,position(' ' 
in firstname)));

Charley

Joshua wrote:
> Ok,
> 
> You guys must be getting sick of these newbie questions, but I can't 
> resist since I am learning a lot from these email lists and getting 
> results quick! Thanks to everyone for their contributions.
> 
> Here is my questions....
> 
> I have a column that looks like this
> 
> firstname
> -----------------
> John B
> Mark A
> Jennifer D
> 
> Basically I have the first name followed by a middle initial. Is there a 
> quick command I can run to strip the middle initial? Basically, I just 
> need to delete the middle initial so the column would then look like the 
> following:
> 
> firstname
> ---------------
> John
> Mark
> Jennifer
> 
> Thanks again for all of your help today. Everything you guys have been 
> sending has produced successful results.
> 
> Thanks.
> 
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