title: How do identify the first character of a string as numeric or character in SQL
body: <p>I need to identify the first character in my data as numeric or character in SQL Server. I am relatively new to this and I don't know where to begin on this one.  But here is what I have done to this point. I had data that looked like this:</p>
  
  <pre><code>TypeDep
  Transfer From 4Z2
  Transfer From BZZ
  Transfer From 123
  Transfer From abc
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I used the <code>right</code> function to remove the 'transfer from' and isolate the data I need to check.</p>
  
  <pre><code>UPDATE #decode
  SET firstPartType = Right(z.TypeDep,17)
  FROM #decode z
  where z.TypeDep like 'TRANSFER FROM%'
  
  firstPartType
  4Z2
  BZZ
  123
  abc
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Now I need to add a column identifying the first character in the string. Producing the results below.</p>
  
  <pre><code>firstPartType   SecondPartType
  4Z2             Numeric
  BZZ             Alpha
  123             Numeric
  abc             Alpha
  </code></pre>