Split string into two columns

Question

I have the following string to split into two columns:

Given:

DECLARE @String VARCHAR(MAX) = 'Mak^1,Jak^2,Smith^3,Lee^4,Joseph^5'

I want to split it into two columns:

column1  column2
-----------------
Mak      1
Jak      2
Smith    3
Lee      4
Joseph   5

My try:

Table-valued Function:

CREATE FUNCTION [dbo].[udf_Split]
(
@InputString VARCHAR(8000), 
@Delimiter VARCHAR(50)
)
RETURNS @Items TABLE (ID INTEGER IDENTITY(1,1), Item VARCHAR(8000))

AS
BEGIN
      IF @Delimiter = ' '
      BEGIN
            SET @Delimiter = ','
            SET @InputString = REPLACE(@InputString, ' ', @Delimiter)
      END
      IF (@Delimiter IS NULL OR @Delimiter = '')
            SET @Delimiter = ','

      DECLARE @Item VARCHAR(8000)
      DECLARE @ItemList VARCHAR(8000)
      DECLARE @DelimIndex INT

      SET @ItemList = @InputString
      SET @DelimIndex = CHARINDEX(@Delimiter, @ItemList, 0)
      WHILE (@DelimIndex != 0)
      BEGIN
            SET @Item = SUBSTRING(@ItemList, 0, @DelimIndex)
            INSERT INTO @Items VALUES (@Item)

            SET @ItemList = SUBSTRING(@ItemList, @DelimIndex+1, LEN(@ItemList)-@DelimIndex)
            SET @DelimIndex = CHARINDEX(@Delimiter, @ItemList, 0)
      END -- End WHILE

      IF @Item IS NOT NULL 
      BEGIN
            SET @Item = @ItemList
            INSERT INTO @Items VALUES (@Item)
      END

      ELSE INSERT INTO @Items VALUES (@InputString)

      RETURN

END

Function calling:

SELECT Item FROM [dbo].[udf_Split](@String ,',');

Output:

Item
--------------
Mak^1
Jak^2
Smith^3
Lee^4
Joseph^5

Probably SELECT LEFT(Item, CHARINDEX('^', Item) - 1) AS Column1, RIGHT(Item, LEN(Item) - CHARINDEX('^', Item)) AS Column2 FROM [dbo].[udf_Split](@String ,',') will be enough. — Zhorov
– Zhorov, Commented Sep 18, 2019 at 10:38

Zohar Peled · Accepted Answer · 2019-09-18 11:01:37Z

4

First, Please note that SQL Server 2008 r2 is out of extended support. It's high time to upgrade to a newer version.

For a single string, I would probably use a little dynamic SQL magic trick:

DECLARE @String VARCHAR(MAX) = 'Mak^1,Jak^2,Smith^3,Lee^4,Joseph^5'

DECLARE @Sql VARCHAR(MAX) = 'SELECT Name,Id FROM (VALUES (''' + REPLACE(REPLACE(REPLACE(@String,'''',''''''), ',', '),('''), '^', ''',') + ')) V(Name, Id)';

-- @Sql now contains this:
-- SELECT Name,Id FROM (VALUES ('Mak',1),('Jak',2),('Smith',3),('Lee',4),('Joseph',5)) V(Name, Id)

EXEC(@Sql)

Results:

Name    Id
Mak     1
Jak     2
Smith   3
Lee     4
Joseph  5

edited Sep 18, 2019 at 11:01

answered Sep 18, 2019 at 10:41

Zohar Peled

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2 Comments

Thom A Over a year ago

That's actually a really interesting, and different, way to approach this.

Thom A Over a year ago

I recommend using REPLACE(@String,'''','''''') though; as otherwise this is open to injection (as we don't know where the value of @String is coming from).

Gordon Linoff · Accepted Answer · 2019-09-18 10:43:38Z

In the most recent versions of SQL Server, you can use string_split():

select left(s.value, charindex('^', value) - 1) as column1,
       stuff(s.value, 1, charindex('^', value), '') as column2
from string_split(@string, ',') s ;

You might find it most convenient to download a split function to handle this.

Otherwise, I think a recursive CTE is a simple enough approach:

with cte as (
      select convert(varchar(max), null) as row,
             @string as str
      union all
      select convert(varchar(max), left(str, charindex(',', str + ',') - 1)),
             convert(varchar(max), stuff(str, 1, charindex(',', str + ','), ''))
      from cte
      where str <> '' 
     )
select left(cte.row, charindex('^', cte.row) - 1) as column1,
       stuff(cte.row, 1, charindex('^', cte.row), '')
from cte
where row is not null;

Here is a db<>fiddle.

Thom A · Accepted Answer · 2019-09-18 10:42:51Z

1

I feel a much better approach to this would be to get rid of that awful WHILE and use a set based approach; we'll be using delimitedsplit8K here (if you are on 2012+ use delimitedsplit8k_lead or on 2016+ you can STRING_SPLIT).

With that in mind, the above becomes quite trivial:

DECLARE @String varchar(MAX) = 'Mak^1,Jak^2,Smith^3,Lee^4,Joseph^5';

SELECT LEFT(DS.Item,CHARINDEX('^',DS.Item)-1) AS Col1,
       STUFF(DS.Item,1, CHARINDEX('^',DS.Item),'') AS Col2
FROM dbo.DelimitedSplit8K(@String, ',') DS;

answered Sep 18, 2019 at 10:42

Thom A♦

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Comments

Sreenu131 · Accepted Answer · 2019-09-18 10:49:31Z

Try This Script below

DECLARE @String VARCHAR(MAX) = 'Mak^1,Jak^2,Smith^3,Lee^4,Joseph^5';

DECLARE @TempTable AS TABLE(data VARCHAR(MAX))
INSERT INTO @TempTable
SELECT @String

;WITH CTE
AS
(
SELECT Split.A.value('.','nvarchar(1000)') AS data
FROM 
(
SELECT CAST('<S>'+REPLACE(data,',','</S><S>')+'</S>' AS XML ) AS data
FROM @TempTable
)AS A
CROSS APPLY data.nodes('S') AS Split(A)
)
SELECT LTRIM(RTRIM(SUBSTRING(data,0,CHARINDEX('^',data)))) AS column1,
       LTRIM(RTRIM(SUBSTRING(data,CHARINDEX('^',data)+1,LEN (data)))) AS column2
FROM CTE

Result

column1 column2
-------------------
Mak         1
Jak         2
Smith       3
Lee         4
Joseph      5

Use the above script create table valued parameter function

CREATE FUNCTION [dbo].[udf_SplitFun](@InputData VARCHAR(MAX))
RETURNS @Return TABLE ( column1 VARCHAR(200),column2 INT)
AS
BEGIN
DECLARE @TempTable AS TABLE
(
data VARCHAR(MAX)
)
INSERT INTO @TempTable
SELECT @InputData

;WITH CTE
AS
(
SELECT Split.A.value('.','nvarchar(1000)') AS data
FROM 
(
SELECT CAST('<S>'+REPLACE(data,',','</S><S>')+'</S>' AS XML ) AS data
FROM @TempTable
)AS A
CROSS APPLY data.nodes('S') AS Split(A)
)
INSERT INTO @Return(column1,column2)
SELECT LTRIM(RTRIM(SUBSTRING(data,0,CHARINDEX('^',data)))) AS column1,
       LTRIM(RTRIM(SUBSTRING(data,CHARINDEX('^',data)+1,LEN (data)))) AS column2
FROM CTE

RETURN;

END

Execute the Function like below

DECLARE @InputData VARCHAR(MAX) = 'Mak^1,Jak^2,Smith^3,Lee^4,Joseph^5';

SELECT * FROM [dbo].[udf_SplitFun] (@InputData)
GO

Renat · Accepted Answer · 2019-09-18 10:49:49Z

1

You may use that split function another time to split each line by caret. Like:

SELECT SplitByCaret1.Item, SplitByCaret2.Item 
FROM [dbo].[udf_Split](@String ,',') SplitByComma
CROSS APPLY (SELECT * FROM [dbo].[udf_Split](SplitByComma.Item ,'^') Splitted WHERE Splitted.ID=1) SplitByCaret1
CROSS APPLY (SELECT * FROM [dbo].[udf_Split](SplitByComma.Item ,'^') Splitted WHERE Splitted.ID=2) SplitByCaret2

edited Sep 18, 2019 at 10:49

answered Sep 18, 2019 at 10:44

Renat

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