Splitting the string in sql server
Solution 1
Try this function
CREATE FUNCTION [dbo].[func_Split]
(
@DelimitedString varchar(8000),
@Delimiter varchar(100)
)
RETURNS @tblArray TABLE
(
ElementID int IDENTITY(1,1), -- Array index
Element varchar(1000) -- Array element contents
)
AS
BEGIN
-- Local Variable Declarations
-- ---------------------------
DECLARE @Index smallint,
@Start smallint,
@DelSize smallint
SET @DelSize = LEN(@Delimiter)
-- Loop through source string and add elements to destination table array
-- ----------------------------------------------------------------------
WHILE LEN(@DelimitedString) > 0
BEGIN
SET @Index = CHARINDEX(@Delimiter, @DelimitedString)
IF @Index = 0
BEGIN
INSERT INTO
@tblArray
(Element)
VALUES
(LTRIM(RTRIM(@DelimitedString)))
BREAK
END
ELSE
BEGIN
INSERT INTO
@tblArray
(Element)
VALUES
(LTRIM(RTRIM(SUBSTRING(@DelimitedString, 1,@Index - 1))))
SET @Start = @Index + @DelSize
SET @DelimitedString = SUBSTRING(@DelimitedString, @Start , LEN(@DelimitedString) - @Start + 1)
END
END
RETURN
END
Example Usage – simply pass the function the comma delimited string as well as your required delimiter.
DECLARE @SQLStr varchar(100)
SELECT @SQLStr = 'Mickey Mouse, Goofy, Donald Duck, Pluto, Minnie Mouse'
SELECT
*
FROM
dbo.func_split(@SQLStr, ',')
Result will be like this
Solution 2
... Since there is no built in function in sql server ...
That was true at the time you asked this question but SQL Server 2016 introduces STRING_SPLIT
.
So you can just use
SELECT value
FROM STRING_SPLIT ('apple,banana,pineapple,grapes', ',')
There are some limitations (only single character delimiters accepted and a lack of any column indicating the split index being the most eye catching). The various restrictions and some promising results of performance testing are in this blog post by Aaron Bertrand.
Solution 3
You can convert your data to XML, by replacing the comma by a custom tag, in this case, <w>
for word.
create table t(col varchar(255));
insert into t values ('apple,banana,pineapple,grapes');
insert into t values ('car,bike,airplane');
select cast(('<w>' + replace(col, ',', '</w><w>') + '</w>') as xml) as xmlValue
from t
Which returns
| XMLVALUE |
|--------------------------------------------------------|
| <w>apple</w><w>banana</w><w>pineapple</w><w>grapes</w> |
| <w>car</w><w>bike</w><w>airplane</w> |
Now, if you use this query as a inner xml select, the outer query can split it into distinct rows:
Solution:
select split.xmlTable.value('.', 'varchar(255)') as xmlValue
from (
select cast(('<w>' + replace(col, ',', '</w><w>') + '</w>') as xml) as xmlValue
from t
) as xmlTable
cross apply xmlValue.nodes ('/w') as split(xmlTable);
Related videos on Youtube
Comments
-
rampuriyaaa over 3 years
I have a string in the database which is comma separated.Like 'apple,banana,pineapple,grapes' I need to split this string on the basis of comma and iterate through this.Since there is no built in function in sql server, Is there any efficient way in which this objective can be attained.
-
dev7 over 10 yearsWhat server side language are you using?
-
-
user3137901 almost 8 yearsI would use
SET @DelSize = LEN(@Delimiter + 'x') - 1
to handle delimiters with trailing blanks such as' '
and', '
. -
SajithG over 5 yearsThank you very much Vignesh Kumar, great help !
-
callisto almost 5 years@ChryCheng - That is definitely something that should be included in this solution.
-
Aleks G over 2 yearsI know this is fairly old - but thanks nonetheless. The only issue I have is when the substrings have embedded escaped delimiter, e.g. "Mickey\,Mouse, Goofy..." - this would split "Mickey\" and "Mouse" into two - but should only give me "Mickey,Mouse" as one