SYSTEM, COMPUTER PROGRAM PRODUCT AND METHOD OF AUTOMATICALLY REMOVING LEADING AND TRAILING SPACE CHARACTERS FROM DATA BEING ENTERED INTO A DATABASE SYSTEM

• US 20070282849A1
• Filed: 05/31/2006
• Published: 12/06/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 05/31/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SAP SE
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Hu, Teng, PHAM, PHONG A., DINH, HUNG T.
• Granted Patent: US 7,475,086 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2448 for particular applications; for extensibility, e.g. user defined types
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99931 Database or file accessing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99933 Query processing, i.e. searching
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99942 Manipulating data structure, e.g. compression, compaction, compilation
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99944 Object-oriented database structure

Abstract

A system, computer program product and computer Implemented method of automatically removing space characters from data being entered into a database system are provided. When a user creates a table in a database system into which data having leading and/or trailing character spaces may be entered, the user may specifically instruct the database system to remove any character spaces before entering the data into the table. Consequently, when a piece of data is being entered into the table, the database system will determine whether the piece of data includes leading and/or trailing character spaces. If so, the database system will automatically remove the character spaces from the piece of data before it is entered into the table. Hence, the use of TRIM functions when retrieving data from the database system will be obviated.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method of automatically removing space characters from data being entered into a database system comprising the steps of:

enabling a user to instruct the database system to remove space characters from data being entered therein;

enabling the user to indicate to the database system that a piece of data is to be entered therein;

determining, by the database system upon indication that the piece of data is to be entered therein, whether the piece of data contains at least one space character; and

automatically removing, as instructed, the at least one space character from the piece of data before the piece of data is entered into the database system if the piece of data is determined to contain the at least one space character by the database system.

2. The computer implemented method of claim 1 wherein the at least one space character is a leading space character.

3. The computer implemented method of claim 2 wherein the piece of data is entered into a table within the database system, the table being created with an instruction to remove the leading space character, the table including at least one row and at least one column and the instruction is to remove the leading space character from data being entered in the at least one column.

4. The computer implemented method of claim 1 wherein the at least one space character is a trailing space character.

5. The computer implemented method of claim 4 wherein the piece of data is entered into a table within the database system, the table being created with an instruction to remove the trailing space character, the table including at least one row and at least one column and the instruction is to remove the trailing space character from data being entered in the at least one column.

6. The computer implemented method of claim 1 wherein if the piece of data is determined to contain two or more space characters and the two or more space characters are leading and trailing space characters, the leading and trailing space characters are removed before the piece of data is entered in the database system.

7. The computer implemented method of claim 1 wherein the piece of data is entered into a table within the database system, the table being created with instruction to remove the leading and trailing space characters.

8. The computer implemented method of claim 7 wherein the table includes at least one row and at least one column and the instruction to remove space characters from data being entered therein includes instruction to remove spaces characters from data being entered in the at least one column.

9. A computer program product for automatically removing space characters from data being entered into a database system comprising:

code means for enabling a user to instruct the database system to remove space characters from data being entered therein;

code means for enabling the user to indicate to the database system that a piece of data is to be entered therein;

code means for determining, by the database system upon indication that the piece of data is to be entered therein, whether the piece of data contains at least one space character; and

code means for automatically removing, as instructed, the at least one space character from the piece of data before the piece of data is entered into the database system if the piece of data is determined to contain the at least one space character by the database system.

10. The computer program product of claim 9 wherein the at least one space character is a leading space character.

11. The computer program product of claim 9 wherein the at least one space character is a trailing space character.

12. The computer program product of claim 9 wherein if the piece of data is determined to contain two or more space characters and the two or more space characters are leading and trailing space characters, the leading and trailing space characters are removed before the piece of data is entered in the database system.

13. The computer program product of claim 9 wherein the piece of data is entered into a table within the database system, the table being created with instruction to remove the leading and trailing space characters.

14. The computer program product of claim 13 wherein the table includes at least one row and at least one column and the instruction to remove space characters from data being entered therein includes instruction to remove spaces characters from data being entered in the at least one column.

15. A computer system for automatically removing space characters from data being entered into a database system contained thereon comprising:

at least one storage device for storing code data; and

at least one processor for processing the code data to enable a user to instruct the database system to remove space characters from data being entered therein, to enable the user to indicate to the database system that a piece of data is to be entered therein, to determine, by the database system upon indication that the piece of data is to be entered therein, whether the piece of data contains at least one space character, and to automatically remove, as instructed, the at least one space character from the piece of data before the piece of data is entered into the database system if the piece of data is determined to contain the at least one space character by the database system.

16. The computer system of claim 15 wherein the at least one space character is a leading space character.

17. The computer system of claim 15 wherein the at least one space character is a trailing space character.

18. The computer system of claim 15 wherein if the piece of data is determined to contain two or more space characters and the two or more space characters are leading and trailing space characters, the leading and trailing space characters are removed before the piece of data is entered in the database system.

19. The computer system of claim 15 wherein the piece of data is entered into a table within the database system, the table being created with instruction to remove the leading and trailing space characters.

20. The computer system of claim 19 wherein the table includes at least one row and at least one column and the instruction to remove space characters from data being entered therein includes instruction to remove spaces characters from data being entered in the at least one column.