xp_sscanf (Transact-SQL)
Applies to:
SQL Server
Reads data from the string into the argument locations specified by each format argument.
Transact-SQL syntax conventions
Syntax
xp_sscanf { 'string' OUTPUT , 'format' } [ , 'argument' [ , ...n ] ]
Arguments
Important
Arguments for extended stored procedures must be entered in the specific order as described in the Syntax section. If the parameters are entered out of order, an error message occurs.
'string' OUTPUT
The character string to read the argument values from.
When OUTPUT
is specified, string puts the value of argument in the output parameter.
'format'
A formatted character string, similar to the values supported by the C-language sscanf
function. Currently, only the %s
format argument is supported.
'argument'
A varchar variable set to the value of the corresponding format argument.
n
A placeholder that indicates that a maximum of 50 arguments can be specified.
Return code values
0
(success) or 1
(failure).
Result set
xp_sscanf
returns the following message:
Command(s) completed successfully.
Permissions
Requires membership in the public role.
Examples
The following example uses xp_sscanf
to extract two values from a source string based on their positions in the format of the source string.
DECLARE @filename VARCHAR(20),
@message VARCHAR(20);
EXEC xp_sscanf 'sync -b -fproducts10.tmp -rrandom',
'sync -b -f%s -r%s',
@filename OUTPUT,
@message OUTPUT;
SELECT @filename, @message;
Here's the result set.
(No column name) (No column name)
---------------- --------------------
products10.tmp random