SQL Server - Ordering Combined Number Strings Prior To Column Insert - sql

Question

I have 2 string columns (thousands of rows) with ordered numbers in each string (there can be zero to ten numbers in each string). Example:
+------------------+------------+
| ColString1 | ColString2 |
+------------------+------------+
| 1;3;5;12; | 4;6' |
+------------------+------------+
| 1;5;10 | 2;26; |
+------------------+------------+
| 4;7; | 3; |
+------------------+------------+
The end result is to combine these 2 columns, sort the numbers in
ascending order and then put each number into individual columns (smallest, 2nd smallest etc).
e.g. Colstring1 is 1;3;5;12; and ColString2 is 4;6; needs to return 1;3;4;5;6;12; which I then use xml to allocated into columns.
Everthing works fine using xml apart from the step to order the numbers (i.e I'm getting 1;3;5;12;4;6; when I combine the strings i.e. not in ascending order).
I've tried put them into a JSON array first to order, thinking I could do a top[1] etc but that did not work.
Any help on how to combine the 2 columns and order them before inserting into columns:
Steps so far:
Example data:
DECLARE #tbl TABLE (ID INT IDENTITY PRIMARY KEY, ColString1 VARCHAR(50), ColString2 VARCHAR(50));
INSERT INTO #tbl (ColString1, ColString2)
VALUES
('1;3;5;12;', '4;6;'),
('1;5;10;', '2;26;'),
('14;', '3;8;');
XML Approach (Combines strings and puts into columns but not in the correct order):
;WITH Split_Numbers (xmlname)
AS
(
SELECT
CONVERT(XML,'<Names><name>'
+ REPLACE ( LEFT(ColString1+ColString2,LEN(ColString1+ColString2) - 1),';', '</name><name>') + '</name></Names>') AS xmlname
FROM #tbl
)
SELECT
xmlname.value('/Names[1]/name[1]','int') AS Number1,
xmlname.value('/Names[1]/name[2]','int') AS Number2,
xmlname.value('/Names[1]/name[3]','int') AS Number3,
xmlname.value('/Names[1]/name[4]','int') AS Number4,
xmlname.value('/Names[1]/name[5]','int') AS Number5
--etc for additional columns
FROM Split_Numbers
Current Output: numbers not in correct order,
+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+
| Number1 | Number2 | Number3 | Number4 | Number5 |
+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+
| 1 | 3 | 5 | 12 | 4 |
| 1 | 5 | 10 | 2 | 26 |
| 14 | 3 | 8 | NULL | NULL |
+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+
Desired Output: numbers in ascending order.
+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+
| Number1 | Number2 | Number3 | Number4 | Number5 |
+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+
| 1 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
| 1 | 2 | 5 | 10 | 26 |
| 3 | 8 | 14 | NULL | NULL |
+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+
JSON Approach: combines the columns into a JSON array but I still can't order correctly when in JSON format.
REPLACE ( CONCAT('[', LEFT(ColString1+ColString2,LEN(ColString1+ColString2) - 1), ']') ,';',',')
Any help will be greatly appreciated whether there is a way to order the xml or JSON string prior to entry. Happy to consider an alternative way if there is an easier solution.

Answer 1

You can use string_agg() and string_split():
select t.*, newstring
from t cross apply
(select string_agg(value, ',') order by (value) as newstring
from (select s1.value
from unnest(colstring1, ',') s1
union all
select s2.value
from unnest(colstring2, ',') s2
) s
) s;
That said, you should probably put your effort into fixing the data model. Storing numbers in strings is bad. Storing multiple values in a string is bad, bad. If the numbers are foreign references to other tables, that is bad, bad, bad, bad, bad.

Answer 2

While waiting for a DDL and sample data population, etc., here is a conceptual example for you. It is using XQuery and its FLWOR expression.
CTE does most of the heavy lifting:
Concatenates both columns values into one string. CONCAT() function protects against NULL values.
Converts it into XML data type.
Sorts XML elements by converting their values to int data type in the FLWOR expression.
Filters out XML elements with no legit values.
The rest is trivial.
SQL
-- DDL and sample data population, start
DECLARE #tbl TABLE (ID INT IDENTITY PRIMARY KEY, col1 VARCHAR(100), col2 VARCHAR(100));
INSERT INTO #tbl (col1, col2)
VALUES
('1;3;5;12;', '4;6;'),
('1;5;10;', '2;26;');
-- DDL and sample data population, end
DECLARE #separator CHAR(1) = ';';
;WITH rs AS
(
SELECT *
, CAST('<root><r><![CDATA[' +
REPLACE(CONCAT(col1, col2), #separator, ']]></r><r><![CDATA[') +
']]></r></root>' AS XML).query('<root>
{
for $x in /root/r[text()]
order by xs:int($x)
return $x
}
</root>') AS sortedXML
FROM #tbl
)
SELECT ID
, c.value('(r[1]/text())[1]','INT') AS Number1
, c.value('(r[2]/text())[1]','INT') AS Number2
, c.value('(r[3]/text())[1]','INT') AS Number3
-- continue with the rest of the columns
FROM rs CROSS APPLY sortedXML.nodes('/root') AS t(c);
Output
+----+---------+---------+---------+
| ID | Number1 | Number2 | Number3 |
+----+---------+---------+---------+
| 1 | 1 | 3 | 4 |
| 2 | 1 | 2 | 5 |
+----+---------+---------+---------+