Function resembling the work of Explode in MySQL

Question

Is there any function in MySQL to explode data of a column and then retrieve it? Like if a column data is P:12 , then can the data be exploded on \':\' and then read?

Answer 1

I parse the string using a while loop and insert the split items into a temporary table. It's complicated, but I copy and paste the code, then change the table name for readability. Here's an example to parse a comma delimited list of user ids into a temp table:

CREATE PROCEDURE spParse
(_UserList MEDIUMTEXT)
BEGIN
    DECLARE _Pos INT;
    DECLARE _Start INT;
    DECLARE _Item INT;
    DECLARE _Length INT;

    CREATE TEMPORARY TABLE IF NOT EXISTS TempUserList
    (
        UserID INT
    );

    SET _Length = LENGTH(_UserList);
    SET _Pos = 1;
    SET _Start = 1;
    divide_loop:LOOP
        IF _Pos > _Length Then
            LEAVE divide_loop;
        End If;
        IF SUBSTRING(_UserList,_Pos,1) = ',' Then
            IF _Pos - _Start > 0 Then
                IF IsNumeric(SUBSTRING(_UserList,_Start,_Pos-_Start)) Then
                    SET _Item = CONVERT(SUBSTRING(_UserList,_Start,_Pos-_Start),Signed);
                    INSERT INTO TempUserList (UserID)
                    VALUES (_Item);
                End If;                 
            End If;
            SET _Start = _Pos + 1;
        End If;
        SET _Pos = _Pos + 1;
    END LOOP divide_loop;
    IF _Start <= _Length Then
        If IsNumeric(SUBSTRING(_UserList,_Start,_Length - _Start + 1)) Then
            SET _Item = CONVERT(SUBSTRING(_UserList,_Start,_Length - _Start + 1),Signed);       
            INSERT INTO TempUserList (UserID)
            VALUES (_Item);
        End If;
    End If;

    SELECT UserID FROM TempUserList;

    DROP TABLE TempUserList;
END