An Experiment (with special bonus GARBAGE SQL script)

Gonna try posting some source code that I wrote for a friend today. It's really horrible and I'm embarrased to be posting it.

Here goes:

SET nocount ON

declare @foo varchar(10)

SET @foo = 'abc123'

CREATE TABLE #tmpLetters (
      letter char)

INSERT INTO #tmpLetters (letter) values ('a')
INSERT INTO #tmpLetters (letter) values ('b')
INSERT INTO #tmpLetters (letter) values ('c')
INSERT INTO #tmpLetters (letter) values ('d')
INSERT INTO #tmpLetters (letter) values ('e')
INSERT INTO #tmpLetters (letter) values ('f')
INSERT INTO #tmpLetters (letter) values ('g')
INSERT INTO #tmpLetters (letter) values ('h')
INSERT INTO #tmpLetters (letter) values ('i')
INSERT INTO #tmpLetters (letter) values ('j')
INSERT INTO #tmpLetters (letter) values ('k')
INSERT INTO #tmpLetters (letter) values ('l')
INSERT INTO #tmpLetters (letter) values ('m')
INSERT INTO #tmpLetters (letter) values ('n')
INSERT INTO #tmpLetters (letter) values ('o')
INSERT INTO #tmpLetters (letter) values ('p')
INSERT INTO #tmpLetters (letter) values ('q')
INSERT INTO #tmpLetters (letter) values ('r')
INSERT INTO #tmpLetters (letter) values ('s')
INSERT INTO #tmpLetters (letter) values ('t')
INSERT INTO #tmpLetters (letter) values ('u')
INSERT INTO #tmpLetters (letter) values ('v')
INSERT INTO #tmpLetters (letter) values ('w')
INSERT INTO #tmpLetters (letter) values ('x')
INSERT INTO #tmpLetters (letter) values ('y')
INSERT INTO #tmpLetters (letter) values ('z')


declare lc cursor fast_forward
      FOR
              SELECT * FROM #tmpLetters

      declare @letter char
      declare @hasalpha bit
      SET @hasalpha = 0

      open lc

      fetch next FROM lc INTO @letter

      while @@fetch_status = 0
              begin
                      IF (CHARINDEX(@letter,@foo) <> 0)
                              begin
                                      SET @hasalpha = 1
                              end
              fetch next FROM lc INTO @letter
              end

close lc
deallocate lc

DROP TABLE #tmpLetters

IF @hasalpha = 1
      begin
              print 'Has Alpha Characters'
      end
else
      begin
              print 'No Alpha Characters'
      end

SET nocount off

Don't you feel just a little bit sick? A temp table AND a cursor to find out if a varchar contains alpha characters...

Vomjom claims to have a one-liner that will do this. I'll post it when he gives it to me (Mark: I think we have a peed-on doctor's note situation here...)

[EDIT]

And, we killed the fly with the shotgun once again. Here's the quick way:

declare @foo varchar(10)
set @foo = 'abc123'
IF(@foo LIKE '%[a-z]%')
  BEGIN
    print 'Has Alphas'
  END
ELSE
  BEGIN
    print 'No Alphas'
  END

Live and learn, I suppose...