Using T-SQL, return nth delimited element from a string

Question

I have a need to create a function the will return nth element of a delimited string.

For a data migration project, I am converting JSON audit records stored in a S

Answer 1

Alternatively, one can use xml, nodes() and ROW_NUMBER. We can order the elements based on their document order. For example:

DECLARE @Input VARCHAR(100) = '1a,2b,3c,4d,5e,6f,7g,8h'
       ,@Number TINYINT = 3

DECLARE @XML XML;
DECLARE @value VARCHAR(100);

SET @XML = CAST('' + REPLACE(@Input,',','') + '' AS XML);

WITH DataSource ([rowID], [rowValue]) AS
(
    SELECT ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDER BY T.c ASC) 
            ,T.c.value('.', 'VARCHAR(100)')
    FROM @XML.nodes('./x') T(c)
)
SELECT @value = [rowValue]
FROM DataSource
WHERE [rowID] = @Number;

SELECT @value;