Split a string with no delimiters into columns

Question

I need to split a string in a column into one character each into it\'s own column in SQL Server 2012.

Example: if I have a column with \'ABCDE\', I need to

Answer 1

I am interpreting the question as putting the characters into one column ("split a string in a column into one character each into it's own column"). However, I realize that this might be ambiguous.

One method is with a recursive CTE:

with chars as (
      select left(val, 1) as c, substring(val, 2, len(val)) as rest
      from (select 'ABCDE' as val union all select '123') t
      union all
      select left(rest, 1), substring(rest, 2, len(rest))
      from chars
      where rest <> ''
     )
select c
from chars;

Just plug in your table and column in the subquery. Note that you might want to include other columns as well.

Here is a SQL Fiddle.

If you want multiple columns and the number is not fixed, then you will need dynamic SQL.