On 26 Sep, 11:47, mcl <mcl.off...@googlemail.com> wrote:
> On 26 Sep, 11:19, Captain Paralytic <paul_laut...@yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>
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> > On 26 Sep, 11:08, mcl <mcl.off...@googlemail.com> wrote:
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> > > I am very new to MySQL and programming and I have some errors in a
> > > field in my database
>
> > > Field = 'Brian, Bill,Joe, Peter'
>
> > > Some fields are missing the space after the 'comma'
>
> > > I need to match on any 'comma + character'
> > > but not 'comma + space'
> > > and replace with 'comma + space + original character'
>
> > > There can be more than one error in a field
>
> > > so I guess I need something like
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> > > Update mytable set myfield = replace (mytable.myfield, some wonderful
> > > regexp)
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> > > Any gratefully appreciated
>
> > > Richard
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> > Your problem is that the field violates First Normal Form (1NF).
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> > Normalise your database and this problem will never ooccur.http://del.icio.us/Captain_Paralytic/normalization
>
> Captain,
>
> Thanks for the reply, but I do not know what you mean.
>
> It is a Text field and I want to put a space after every comma where
> there is not one for presentation purposes.
>
> Richard- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

It looks as though your field contains multiple values (a list of
names). Is this not the case?

"The first normal form (or 1NF) requires that the values in each
column of a table are atomic. By atomic we mean that there are no sets
of values within a column."