Help needed for definition query syntax to trim off leading 0s in text field.

Question

Hi. I keep getting errors - This is the syntax directly from ESRI:

TRIM(BOTH | LEADING | TRAILING trim_character FROM string_exp)

I have tried:

TRIM(LEADING '0' FROM "TRAIL_NO")

TRIM(LEADING '0' FROM '0%')

both of these error with

Invalid SQL syntax [ORA-00920: invalid relational operator]

I have also tried many other iterations and have received errors such as missing expression, etc.

What is the correct syntax to remove leading 0s from a text field?  Please help, thanks!!

Also odd - one of the errors showed [STATE_ID = 27] and I do not have a state id field in my attribute table.

Thanks!!!!

JMCM · Answer

Hello, I know this thread is 4 years old, but I wanted to help future users who found this using Google search like I did.

I found the correct ArcGIS SQL syntax to be TRIM(LEADING '0' FROM TRAIL_NO) (no double quotes around the string expression variable). However, on my end, I still got an error after that.

The Python lstrip function works to remove a leading character, but I assume if you're using SQL in the first place, you want to not use Python (which is slower). I got around this by definition querying/filtering the table first so that it doesn't iterate over unnecessary rows.

Finally, for my purpose, I ended up using the Ctrl + F (find and replace) feature instead. One needs to be careful with this function, but if it applies to your situation, it works *fast*.

StevenTouzel · Answer

Hello Justine, I think the problem with your query is that it needs a SQL operator like (=, <, >,...). Your TRIM expression looks fine. Here's an example that'll return all rows with an empty OWNER_NAME after the leading and trailing white space is removed:

TRIM(BOTH ' ' FROM OWNER_NAME) = ''

However, if you wanted to recalculate a field and remove the leading '0' you could use python like this:

def removezero(field):
    if (field[0] == "0"):
        return field[1:]
    else: 
        return(field)

MichaelTownshend · Answer

Good Afternoon,

Have you found a resolution to this?  I am only finding the same syntax documentation as you noted above.  I have not found any working examples of how to use TRIM as all instances of the question I've found in the Esri Community pages have been left unanswered.