Moving Part of an SQL String into Another Variable

Try the below Query... it will help you....

declare @var1 varchar(8000)
declare @var2 varchar(8000)
set @var1 ='{strong} this is strong{/strong} this is not strong.'
select @var2 = substring(@var1,charindex('{strong}',@var1)+len('{strong}'),charindex('{/strong}',@var1)-charindex('{strong}',@var1)-len('{strong}'))
SET @var1 = REPLACE(@var1,'{strong}' + @var2 + '{/strong}','')
select @var1 as Var1,@var2 as Var2

Sql is not the best choice of place to do something like this

If I had to, like someone had a gun pointed at my kids

I'd do something like this, might need adjusting for your chose flavour of sql

This is T-SQL

Declare v1 VarChar(255)
Declare v2 VarChar(255)


set v1 = '{Strong}$REPLACE${/Strong}'
set v2 = 'This is strong'

Select Replace(v1,'$REPLACE$',v2)

The other way you would have to do something like use CharIndex to find '}{/' Then use Substring to chop up V1 (as '{Strong}{/Strong}') and then concatenate them with v2

Using LEFT, RIGHT and CHARINDEX as;

declare @start varchar(50)='{strong}', @end varchar(50)='{/strong}' 

select @var2 = left(@var1,charindex(@end,@var1,1)+len(@end)), 
       @var1= right(@var1,len(@var1)-(charindex(@end,@var1,1)+len(@end)))

SQL DEMO 1

This is bit crazy but generic and works with some text before '{strong}' tag as well.

declare 
@var1 varchar(100)= 'front text{strong} this is strong{/strong} this is not strong', 
@var2 varchar(100)= ''

declare @start varchar(50)='{strong}', @end varchar(50)='{/strong}' 

select @var2 = substring(myString,ci1,ci2+len(@end)-ci1), 
       @var1 = right(myString,len(myString) - (ci2+ len(@end)))
from (
    select @var1 myString, charindex(@start,@var1,1) ci1, 
           charindex(@end,@var1,charindex(@start,@var1,1)) ci2
) T  

select @var2 var2 ,@var1 var1

SQL DEMO 2

--Results
VAR2                                VAR1
{strong} this is strong{/strong}    this is not strong