How to get empty cells rows in mssql

Question

I have been trying to get the rows where cell is empty but how can i get an empty cell Its not NULL over there, its like an empty string.

05J9LJ-E    E004030 BGH/F.TB
            E004032 000080.KS
002X87-E    E004033 018880.KS

So second row, first column is like 8 spaces so how can i get these rows

SELECT column_A,column_B,column_C FROM [dbo].[table] where column_A is null

SELECT column_A,column_B,column_C FROM [dbo].[table] where column_A = ''

When i put the data Notepad View in notepad++

The syntax is clearly SQL Server so I removed the mysql tag. — Gordon Linoff
– Gordon Linoff, Commented Jan 20, 2015 at 12:02

Gordon Linoff · Accepted Answer · 2015-01-20 12:03:59Z

1

You can check that there are no non-space characters in the value:

SELECT column_A, column_B, column_C
FROM [dbo].[table] 
WHERE column_A is null OR
      column_A NOT LIKE '%[^ ]%'

This has the advantage that you can include other characters besides spaces, if you need to.

answered Jan 20, 2015 at 12:03

Gordon Linoff

1.3m62 gold badges704 silver badges856 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

Comments

Tim Schmelter · Accepted Answer · 2015-01-20 12:23:14Z

1

You can check if they are NULL or spaces by using an OR between both conditions:

WHERE column_A IS NULL
  OR  column_A = ''  -- includes multiple spaces

answered Jan 20, 2015 at 12:02

Tim Schmelter

462k79 gold badges718 silver badges980 bronze badges

i tried it but its not working, may be there are some extra characters in between

LTRIM(RTRIM(column_A)) = '', isn't that exactly the same as column_A = '' ?

@t-clausen.dk: you're right :) Edited my answer to take it into account.