Query to return the number of times a specific value occurs within a string?

Question

Alright so I have two tables. Table1 has an reference number column (A), and a second column that has a string of randomness (B). Table2 has only one column with a list of value

Answer 1

Split Function

CREATE FUNCTION [dbo].[udf_Split]
(
    @RowData nvarchar(2000),
    @SplitOn nvarchar(5)
)  
RETURNS @RtnValue table 
(
    Id int identity(1,1),
    Data nvarchar(100)
) 
AS  
BEGIN 
    Declare @Cnt int
    Set @Cnt = 1

    While (Charindex(@SplitOn,@RowData)>0)
    Begin
        Insert Into @RtnValue (data)
        Select 
            Data = ltrim(rtrim(Substring(@RowData,1,Charindex(@SplitOn,@RowData)-1)))

        Set @RowData = Substring(@RowData,Charindex(@SplitOn,@RowData)+1,len(@RowData))
        Set @Cnt = @Cnt + 1
    End

    Insert Into @RtnValue (data)
    Select Data = ltrim(rtrim(@RowData))

    Return
END

Your Data

DECLARE @Table_1 TABLE ([A] INT,[B] VARCHAR(1000)) 
INSERT INTO @Table_1 VALUES
(24,'BLUE; KITTEN; WHITE; PINK; SLOPE; GREEN'),
(51,'GREEN; CLOUDY; WHITE; CHIPS'), 
(78,'PATRIOTS; PINK; PINK; WHITE'), 
(22,'WHITE; RED; TREES; AMY; GREEN')

DECLARE @Table_2 TABLE (ColumnName VARCHAR(100))
INSERT INTO @Table_2 VALUES 
('BLUE'),('WHITE'),('PINK'),('BROWN')

Query

SELECT T2.ColumnName, TotalNums
 FROM 
(SELECT Data, COUNT(DATA) TotalNums 
FROM  @Table_1 t  CROSS APPLY (SELECT * FROM [dbo].[udf_Split](t.B, ';'))C
GROUP BY Data) T1
RIGHT JOIN @Table_2 T2 
ON T1.Data = T2.ColumnName

Result Set

╔════════════╦═══════════╗
║ ColumnName ║ TotalNums ║
╠════════════╬═══════════╣
║ BLUE       ║ 1         ║
║ WHITE      ║ 4         ║
║ PINK       ║ 3         ║
║ BROWN      ║ NULL      ║
╚════════════╩═══════════╝

Answer 2

I played around a bit and came up with this SQL fiddle

The relevant SELECT query looks like this (requires two table scans though, I'm sure it can be made more efficient):

select C, sum(dbo.CountOccurancesOfString(B, C)) as number
from Tbl_1 join Tbl_2 on 1=1
group by C
order by number desc

EDIT This is the function I got from this answer:

CREATE FUNCTION dbo.CountOccurancesOfString
(
 @searchString nvarchar(max),
 @searchTerm nvarchar(max)
)
RETURNS INT
AS
BEGIN
 return (LEN(@searchString)-LEN(REPLACE(@searchString,@searchTerm,'')))/LEN(@searchTerm)
END