How Do I Split a Delimited String in SQL Server Without Creating a Function?

Question

I\'m working with a SQL Server database. I have a column which contains a delimited list, and I need to write a query which splits the values of the list into rows. From bro

Answer 1

I would just take one of the many functions that creates a table and instead of having it return the value put it in a table variable. Then use the table variable. Here is one example that returns a table.

http://www.codeproject.com/KB/database/SQL_UDF_to_Parse_a_String.aspx

Answer 2

example using the built in master..spt_values table

DECLARE @String VARCHAR(1000)
    SELECT @String ='1,4,77,88,4546,234,2,3,54,87,9,6,4,36,6,9,9,6,4,4,68,9,0,5'

    SELECT SUBSTRING(',' + @String + ',', Number + 1,
    CHARINDEX(',', ',' + @String + ',', Number + 1) - Number -1)AS VALUE
    FROM master..spt_values
    WHERE Type = 'P'
    AND Number <= LEN(',' + @String + ',') - 1
    AND SUBSTRING(',' + @String + ',', Number, 1) = ','
    GO

See here for more: Split A String By Using A Number Table

Answer 3

You can use recursive CTE to progressively extract one item

Sample table

create table aTable(a int identity primary key, b int, c varchar(100))
insert aTable values (1, 'this is a test string')
insert aTable values (1, 'this is another test string')
insert aTable values (2, 'here is a test string to put the others to shame')
insert aTable values (4, '')
insert aTable values (5, null)
insert aTable values (5, '-the end- ')

The query

;with tmp(a, b, c, position, single) as (
select a, b,
    STUFF(c, 1, CHARINDEX(' ', c + ' .'), ''),
    1,
    convert(nvarchar(max),left(c, CHARINDEX(' ', c + ' .') -1))
from aTable
union all
select a, b,
    STUFF(c, 1, CHARINDEX(' ', c + ' .'), ''),
    position+1,
    convert(nvarchar(max),left(c, CHARINDEX(' ', c + ' .') -1))
from tmp
where c > '')
select a, b, single, position
from tmp
order by a, position

Notes:

• The delimiter here is a single space, which is what is searched for by CHARINDEX. The dot in ' .' is required because SQL Server normally does not see trailing spaces as significant.
• ALL columns of the original table can be preserved in the CTE, just add them. Here I show an example of 2 columns a and b preserved in the output, with the column c being split into single and an extra column to indicate the position.

Answer 4

For sql Server >= 2016 you can use string_split as below:

SELECT * FROM string_split('Hello John Smith', ' ')

Output

+-------+
| value |
+-------+
| Hello |
| John  |
| Smith |
+-------+

Answer 5

Here's a user-defined parsing function that enables SQL Server that also performs similarly to the VB "Split" function. Designed for interactive leveraging; for example, to parse data within a Stored Procedure called from an external API.

https://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/scriptcenter/User-def-function-enabling-98561cce