Replace ONLY the first occurrence of a string in SQL

Question

I have to update all phone numbers that start with 00 by replacing the 00 with a '+' prefix. I must replace only the first occurrence of 00 and nothing else.

phone_number:     000258843300081
ActualResult:     +02588433+081
ExpectedResult:   +0258843300081

Incorrect Query Used:

    UPDATE [dbo].[phone]
    SET phone_number = REPLACE(phone_number, '00', '+')
    WHERE phone_number_numeric LIKE '00%'

Answer 1

Just use STUFF() :

UPDATE [dbo].[phone]
    SET phone_number = STUFF(phone_number, 1, 2, '+')
    WHERE phone_number_numeric LIKE '00%';

Answer 2

Here's the correct query. Just convert to an update command! Also, I've used a generic approach to solve the problem.

    SELECT 
      phone_number
    , STUFF(phone_number, CHARINDEX('00', phone_number), LEN('00'), '+') as ExpectedResult
    FROM dbo.phone 
    WHERE phone_number_numeric LIKE '00%'

The REPLACE function looks at the entire string. Use STUFF function to narrow the scope down to the desired limit.