mysql selection first letter of each word in a cell - mysql

Question

I would like to return the first letter of each word in a MySQL column called 'initials'.
For example, my table may look like this:
| project_unit | initials |
+---------------------------------------+----------+
| Mbita Clinic Rehabilitation | MCR |
| Management Strategy for Thrips Cowpea | MSTC |
Any suggestions?

Answer 1

You can use below mentioned function to achieve your requirement.
DELIMITER $$
CREATE FUNCTION split_string(split_string varchar(255),my_delimiter varchar(1)) RETURNS varchar(10)
BEGIN
DECLARE temp_string varchar(255);
DECLARE occurance INT;
DECLARE i INT;
DECLARE temp_result varchar(10);
DECLARE final_result varchar(10);
SET temp_result = '';
SET occurance=length(split_string)-length(replace(split_string,' ',''))+1;
IF occurance > 0 then
set i=1;
while i <= occurance do
set temp_string = (select SUBSTRING_INDEX(SUBSTRING_INDEX(split_string, my_delimiter, i),my_delimiter ,-1));
set temp_result = CONCAT(temp_result, SUBSTRING(temp_string,1,1));
set i=i+1;
end while;
ELSE
set temp_result = SUBSTRING(split_string,1,1);
END IF;
set occurance=0;
SET final_result = temp_result;
RETURN (final_result);
END $$
DELIMITER ;
You can use it like this :
SELECT Projcect_unit, split_string(Projcect_unit,' ') as initials FROM main_table;

Answer 2

Since MySQL does not support Regex replacement, you will need to first include UDF (User Defined Function) which you can get from this link.
Once you have the regexp_replace function, you can simply use
select regexp_replace('Mbita Clinic Rehabilitation', '[a-z ]', '')
which would return MRC.
Note that the current regex will remove lowercase letter and spaces, but if your field can contains number or any other character you will have to modify the regex.
Hope this helped.

Answer 3

MySql does not provide such try string operation function so you need create function and call function with query
DELIMITER $$
CREATE FUNCTION `GetUpperCase`(InputString VARCHAR(1024)) RETURNS varchar(1024) CHARSET latin1
DETERMINISTIC
BEGIN
DECLARE return_string,inputDATA VARCHAR(1024);
DECLARE schar VARCHAR(1);
DECLARE string_length, char_code INT;
SET string_length = LENGTH(InputString);
SET inputDATA = InputString ;
SET return_string = '';
WHILE string_length > 0 DO
SET schar = SUBSTRING(inputDATA FROM (-1 * string_length) FOR 1);
SET char_code = ORD(schar);
IF char_code >= 65 AND char_code <= 90 THEN
SET return_string = CONCAT(return_string, schar);
END IF;
SET string_length = string_length - 1;
END WHILE;
RETURN return_string;
END $$
DELIMITER ;
and call function with SQL select query
mysql> SELECT GetUpperCase("Mbita Clinic Rehabilitation Management Strategy for Thrips Cowpea") AS `initials`;
+----------+
| initials |
+----------+
| MCRMSTC |
+----------+