Oracle PL/SQL Programming: A Developer's Workbook

Chapter 18. Character Functions

The character functions allow you manipulate VARCHAR2, CHAR, and RAW variables. For example, there are character functions to concatenate (join) two strings, return a string in all uppercase, extract a substring from another string, or trim leading or trailing blanks. This chapter tests your ability to work with the individual character functions, as well as your ability to perform complex string manipulations by combining the atomic character functions.

Beginner

18-1.	What are the two different ways you can concatenate strings together?
18-2.	What function can you use to find the location of a substring in a string?
18-3.	What functions can you use to substitute a character or pattern in a string?
18-4.	What function can you use to find how many characters a string contains?
18-5.	What is the output of the following? SQL> EXEC DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE(LENGTH(1 * 100));
18-6.	Update the last_name column in the employee table to uppercase. Only update the rows where the last_name is not already uppercased.
18-7.	What functions can you use to change the case (upper, lower) of a string?
18-8.	Write a block that displays the middle three characters of this string: BRUSHLOTS
18-9.	What functions can you use to pad a string?
18-10.	Change the string “this is a headline” into “This Is A Headline” using a character function.
18-11.	Write a PL/SQL block that shows the names of all employees in the employee table whose last names contain the letter “e”.
18-12.	Write a PL/SQL block that displays ...