Using INSTR in BigQuery

Senior Data Engineer • Contractor / Freelancer • GCP & AWS Certified
Search for a command to run...

Senior Data Engineer • Contractor / Freelancer • GCP & AWS Certified
No comments yet. Be the first to comment.
Short, practical posts on SQL and BigQuery — from core language features to advanced query patterns. A reference for data practitioners at every level.
Here's a useful Dataform concept: pre_operations and post_operations. As the name implies, these represent a set of actions that run before and after the main operation (table, view, or SQL operations

BigQuery has always been a SQL engine for tabular data. Object tables add an interesting twist to that. Instead of rows containing values, an object table gives you one row per file — pointing at da

Query your data lake with warehouse-grade security and performance — without moving a single file.

Ever run a heavy BigQuery SQL query, processed gigabytes of data — and then accidentally closed the tab or forgot to save the results? 😬 Don't re-run it. Your results are still there. BigQuery automa

You can use query parameters in BigQuery hashtag#SQL (now in the console as well!) — but how are they different from variables, and when should you use each? Both parameters and variables act as place

If you ever need to do something different based on the existence of a particular substring in hashtag#BigQuery, take a look at the INSTR function.
It returns the 1-based index of the first occurrence of a substring (1 or more characters) in another STRING. The function returns 0 if the substring was not found.
There's also a possibility to specify at what position to start the search (like in good old Excel) and which occurrence to get.
Found it useful? Subscribe to my Analytics newsletter at notjustsql.com.