### Author:  [@zogstrip](https://meta.discourse.org/u/zogstrip)
#### Post date: [October 27, 2017, 2:42pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/how-to-replace-a-string-character-in-topic-title/72922/9 "2017-10-27T14:42:11Z")
Forgot to clear both `fancy_title` and `slug` columns. Query updated ⬆
---
### Author:  [@Pad\_Pors](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Pad_Pors)
#### Post date: [October 27, 2017, 2:45pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/how-to-replace-a-string-character-in-topic-title/72922/10 "2017-10-27T14:45:03Z")
```plaintext
#
```
no change has been made to titles 🤨
**update** : slug is set to encoded in our case, should I change it in the command? @zogstrip
---
### Author:  [@pfaffman](https://meta.discourse.org/u/pfaffman)
#### Post date: [October 27, 2017, 4:29pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/how-to-replace-a-string-character-in-topic-title/72922/11 "2017-10-27T16:29:59Z")
Here’s my try. It’s not tested, so please backup first!
I don’t know how this interacts with “encoded”. Perhaps that means that dashes are encoded as something other than a `-`. If that’s the case, you’ll need to modify things accordingly.
```ruby
Topic.where("title LIKE '%-%'").find_each do |topic|
topic.title.gsub!(/-/," ")
topic.fancy_title.gsub!(/-/," ")
topic.slug.gsub!(/-/," ")
puts topic.title
begin
topic.save!
rescue
puts "oops, something broke."
end
end
```
---
### Author:  [@Pad\_Pors](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Pad_Pors)
#### Post date: [October 27, 2017, 5:25pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/how-to-replace-a-string-character-in-topic-title/72922/12 "2017-10-27T17:25:01Z")
thanks, it gave back `nil` ,
just a double check to be sure I’m doing it right; I enter the app, then run the command in the rails console.
```plaintext
sudo ./launcher enter app
rails c
```
---
### Author:  [@pfaffman](https://meta.discourse.org/u/pfaffman)
#### Post date: [October 27, 2017, 5:40pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/how-to-replace-a-string-character-in-topic-title/72922/13 "2017-10-27T17:40:35Z")
If you got `nil`, then it didn’t find anything to replace. You need to see just what a `-` is encoded as and do that replacement.
You might do a
```
Topic.where("title LIKE '%A PHRASE FROM A TOPIC YOU KNOW NEEDS FIXING%')
```
and you can have a look at what’s in the title field. If there are lots of them, you type `q` to get back to the prompt.
---
### Author:  [@Pad\_Pors](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Pad_Pors)
#### Post date: [October 27, 2017, 5:49pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/how-to-replace-a-string-character-in-topic-title/72922/14 "2017-10-27T17:49:27Z")
it seems that `-` is encoded as space in the title!
when I search for topics with space, it found me titles with space replaced with `-`.
this way is there any chance to update titles using a query?
p.s.: I hope I could explain it clearly.
---
### Author:  [@pfaffman](https://meta.discourse.org/u/pfaffman)
#### Post date: [October 27, 2017, 5:51pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/how-to-replace-a-string-character-in-topic-title/72922/15 "2017-10-27T17:51:33Z")
> [@Pad\_Pors](#):
>
> it seems that - is encoded as space in the title!
Then perhaps they’re fixed already or you need to reload?
---
### Author:  [@Pad\_Pors](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Pad_Pors)
#### Post date: [October 27, 2017, 5:53pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/how-to-replace-a-string-character-in-topic-title/72922/16 "2017-10-27T17:53:49Z")
thanks @pfaffman , @zogstrip
it has been solved as suggested, and I only needed to put space in the find code:
```plaintext
Topic.where("title LIKE '% %'").find_each do |topic|
topic.title.gsub!(/-/," ")
topic.fancy_title.gsub!(/-/," ")
topic.slug.gsub!(/-/," ")
puts topic.title
begin
topic.save!
rescue
puts "oops, something broke."
end
end
```
---
### Author:  [@thaidb](https://meta.discourse.org/u/thaidb)
#### Post date: [August 3, 2018, 10:18am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/how-to-replace-a-string-character-in-topic-title/72922/17 "2018-08-03T10:18:19Z")
> [@Pad\_Pors](#):
>
> Topic.where(“title LIKE ‘% %’”).find\_each do |topic| topic.title.gsub!(/-/," “) topic.fancy\_title.gsub!(/-/,” “) topic.slug.gsub!(/-/,” ") puts topic.title begin topic.save! rescue puts “oops, something broke.” end end
where do we put this code?
and how? later run in terminal 🙂
Thank!
---
### Author:  [@Pad\_Pors](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Pad_Pors)
#### Post date: [August 3, 2018, 12:14pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/how-to-replace-a-string-character-in-topic-title/72922/18 "2018-08-03T12:14:25Z")
in the rails console:
> [@Pad\_Pors](#):
>
> I enter the app, then run the command in the rails console.
>
> ```plaintext
> sudo ./launcher enter app
> rails c
>
> ```
---
### Author:  [@thaidb](https://meta.discourse.org/u/thaidb)
#### Post date: [August 4, 2018, 4:29pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/how-to-replace-a-string-character-in-topic-title/72922/19 "2018-08-04T16:29:35Z")
Yes in console when we run funtion, but where i insert or create new with content:
```plaintext
Topic.where("title LIKE '% %'").find_each do |topic|
topic.title.gsub!(/-/," ")
topic.fancy_title.gsub!(/-/," ")
topic.slug.gsub!(/-/," ")
puts topic.title
begin
topic.save!
rescue
puts "oops, something broke."
end
end
```
---
### Author:  [@sam](https://meta.discourse.org/u/sam)
#### Post date: [August 5, 2018, 10:53pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/how-to-replace-a-string-character-in-topic-title/72922/20 "2018-08-05T22:53:25Z")
None of this makes sense on many level.
You are searching for all titles with a SPACE and then doing a bunch of substitution on `-`
@zogstrip suggestion was the correct efficient way of doing this.
Anyway I feel this has run it’s course and any more discussion here is just adding confusion to this topic.
@thaidb you need to run `rails c` as outlined a few topics up.
[Next page](https://meta.discourse.org/t/how-to-replace-a-string-character-in-topic-title/72922.md?page=2)