SQL remove the next letter/character after a character ^ - sql-server-2008

Question

How to remove a character after the character ^ from a selected rows in table?
e.g.
TABLE Things
Boat
Do^2gs
Cat^fs
^KBear
Mi^&ce
D^Rice
RESULTS:
Boat
Dogs
Cats
Bear
Mice
Dice

Answer 1

select case when charindex('^', col) <> 0
then stuff(col, charindex('^', col), 2, '')
else col
end
-- to handle multiple ^ up to max of 4
select t.col,
r4.col
from Things t
cross apply
(
select col = case when charindex('^', col) <> 0
then stuff(col, charindex('^', col), 2, '')
else col
end
) r1
cross apply
(
select col = case when charindex('^', r1.col) <> 0
then stuff(r1.col, charindex('^', r1.col), 2, '')
else r1.col
end
) r2
cross apply
(
select col = case when charindex('^', r2.col) <> 0
then stuff(r2.col, charindex('^', r2.col), 2, '')
else r2.col
end
) r3
cross apply
(
select col = case when charindex('^', r3.col) <> 0
then stuff(r3.col, charindex('^', r3.col), 2, '')
else r3.col
end
) r4
-- UDF to remove the ^
create function remove_chr
(
#str varchar(100)
)
returns varchar(100)
as
begin
while charindex('^', #str) <> 0
begin
select #str = case
when charindex('^', #str) <> 0
then stuff(#str, charindex('^', #str), 2, '')
else #str
end
end
return #str
end

Answer 2

If you are using MySQL you could use:
SELECT col,
IF(INSTR(col,'^') > 0,CONCAT(LEFT(col,INSTR(col, '^')-1),
RIGHT(col,LENGTH(col) - INSTR(col, '^')-1)), col) AS result
FROM Things;
SqlFiddleDemo
And SQL Server equivalent:
SELECT col,
IIF(CHARINDEX('^',col) > 0,CONCAT(LEFT(col,CHARINDEX('^',col)-1),
RIGHT(col,LEN(col) - CHARINDEX('^',col)-1)), col) AS result
FROM Things
LiveDemo
SQL Server 2008:
SELECT col,
CASE WHEN CHARINDEX('^',col) > 0
THEN LEFT(col,CHARINDEX('^',col)-1) + RIGHT(col,LEN(col) - CHARINDEX('^',col)-1)
ELSE col
END AS result
FROM Things;
Keep in mind that it will work only if there is none or one occurence of ^.

Answer 3

Here is the solution which removes any number of occurrence of '^' .
I have created a function SQL server which is not used any loop or cursor.
CREATE FUNCTION [dbo].[FnReplaceChar](#pOriginalText VARCHAR(2000))
RETURNS VARCHAR(1000)
AS
BEGIN
DECLARE #vText VARCHAR(1000)
,#vXML XML
--Convert text as XML format
SELECT #vXML = '<Root><dtl><f>' + REPLACE(#pOriginalText,'^','</f></dtl><dtl><f>^')+'</f></dtl></Root>'
--Splits words started with '^' and combines after removing character starts with '^'
SET #vText = (
SELECT '' + ACT_TEXT
FROM
(
SELECT CASE WHEN CHARINDEX('^',DOC.COL.value('f[1]','VARCHAR(100)') ,0) > 0
THEN STUFF(DOC.COL.value('f[1]','VARCHAR(100)'),CHARINDEX('^',DOC.COL.value('f[1]','VARCHAR(100)') ,0),2,'')
ELSE DOC.COL.value('f[1]','VARCHAR(100)')
END AS ACT_TEXT
FROM #vXML.nodes('/Root/dtl') DOC(COL)
)T
FOR XML PATH('')
)
RETURN #vText
END
You can use this function in your select query
SELECT dbo.[FnReplaceChar](col_Name)
FROM [Things]