Using character functions

Character functions can be applied mainly on character objects (non-numeric or date objects), but they can also be used to convert a date or numeric object into a string (character type) object.

Character functions are mainly used to manipulate string objects.

For example, we might want to combine two string objects into one, such as a customer's first and last name, return just part of the string, and so on.

The main character functions are as follows:

• Left: This returns the leftmost character in a string

• Right: This returns the rightmost character

• Concatenation: This combines two character strings

• Match: This searches for a specific character or a combination of characters inside a string

• Replace: This replaces a character or set of characters inside a string

How to do it...

Perform the following steps:

1. We create a couple of useful formulas on a simple customer query list based on the Data warehouse universe.

2. The first one creates an index from the customer name; by...