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General Discussion

Posted by Joel Rivera
Joel Rivera
29,401 Points

SQL Calculating, Aggregating and Other Functions String Functions Challenge 3

I am stuck.

Here is the question.

Select the first letter of the "first_name", add a period after it, followed by a space and add the "last_name". Also, uppercase the "last_name". Call it "name". Example "A. CHALKLEY".

MY answer

SELECT CONCAT(SUBSTRING(first_name),1,"." , " " , UPPER(last_name)) AS name FROM users;

I then tried:

SELECT CONCAT(SUBSTRING(first_name, 1), ".", " " , UPPER(last_name)) AS name FROM users;

FINALLY GOT IT:

SELECT CONCAT(SUBSTRING(first_name, 1, 1),".", " " , UPPER(last_name)) AS name FROM users;

lyonel scapino
lyonel scapino
14,191 Points

I had this : SELECT CONCAT(SUBSTRING(first_name,1,1),”.”,” “, UPPER(last_name)) AS name FROM users; AND it wasn't working....How come?

2 Answers

Miriam Tocino
Miriam Tocino
14,201 Points
Miriam Tocino
Miriam Tocino
14,201 Points

Great point! But I still don't understand why this was not valid:

SELECT CONCAT(SUBSTRING(first_name, 1, 1),". " , UPPER(last_name)) AS name FROM users;

Can't you join the period and space together in one string? Just works separately?

Joel Rivera
Joel Rivera
29,401 Points

My code: SELECT CONCAT(SUBSTRING(first_name, 1, 1),".", " " , UPPER(last_name)) AS name FROM users;

Your Code: SELECT CONCAT(SUBSTRING(first_name, 1, 1),". " , UPPER(last_name)) AS name FROM users;

I am no expert and this challenge broke my brain for a while. The only thing I can say is when you concatenated the . you had an extra space and you didn't add the extra white space with an extra set of " " with a space in between. I probably tried your version also, can't remember cause its a blur. I would have assumed your way would have added the same white space as mines just differently but I guess the challenge was looking for something specific. I myself get lost in all the . and ' and " etc. This stuff is not easy. Good luck.

Benjamin Lim
Benjamin Lim
17,880 Points

The code above should work. This is what I coded that worked. Looks similar to yours.

select concat(substring(first_name,1,1),". ",upper(last_name)) as name from users;

Mawel Mirabal
Mawel Mirabal
14,289 Points
Mawel Mirabal
Mawel Mirabal
14,289 Points

This code below should pass too...

SELECT CONCAT(SUBSTRING(first_name, 1, 1), ".", " ", UPPER(last_name) ) AS name FROM users;