SQL Find and Replace

[mistcat]

Hey Peeps,
I have a bunch of data in a column in a mysql database. (varchar column type.) Basically I want to convert any data that is in the format 22JAN01 into the format 22-JAN-01. Right now there is a mixture of data in the to and from format. Any Ideas would be greatly apreciated!!!

Thanks a million,
nate

[[deleted]]

I'd advise two things:

Either convert all the strings to the proper format using an update with concat() and substr() to grab the correct parts of the string an concatenate them together to form the new string,

or

Convert all the strings to their proper DATE counterparts. That saves diskspace, increases your flexibility and functionality, and speeds up your queries too.