Split string into two columns - sql

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

Answer 1

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

Answer 2

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.

Answer 3

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;

Answer 4

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

Answer 5

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