CompTIA Data+ DA0-002 (V2) Practice Question

The correct option combines SUBSTRING and CHARINDEX. The CHARINDEX function (or similar functions like LOCATE or INSTR in other SQL dialects) is used to find the starting position of the hyphen ('-'), which acts as a delimiter. The SUBSTRING function then extracts the part of the string that starts at the position immediately after the hyphen. This method is robust because it does not depend on the length of the prefix, making it suitable for inconsistent data.

• The RIGHT and LEN functions are incorrect because RIGHT requires a fixed number of characters to extract. While this could be calculated using LEN and CHARINDEX, the pair of functions by itself is not the most direct or reliable solution for handling variable-length prefixes.
• The REPLACE and LEFT functions are incorrect. Using REPLACE would require knowing and individually replacing every possible prefix (e.g., 'SKU-', 'ITEM-'), which is inefficient. LEFT would extract the prefix itself, not the desired code.
• The TRIM and CONCAT functions are incorrect. TRIM removes leading and trailing whitespace, which is not the issue in this scenario. CONCAT is used to combine strings, which is the opposite of the required extraction task.