And here is an Query Ninja article from The MapInfo Pro Journal on string manipulation.
This article also shows how you can use the SQL Select to create a preview of the result before actually doing the update. Very handy if you want to check the result before applying it.
The following link is no longer available. To access this information, copy the title found in the url into the search tool on the top nav bar, or try searching for key words in the post. https://li360.pitneybowes.com/s/article/ka180000000DBANAA4/Query-Ninja-String-Manipulation-with-MapInfo-Pro-SQL-Part-1