Is it possible in SQL to generate random alphanumeric character string?
current strings are ‘Mxxxx’ and ‘Pxxxx’ where the xxxx is just a sequential number.
i need a format with alphanumeric character in position 1, 2 & 4, special characters in position 3 & 5. All will be random and unique.
The alphanumeric characters are A – Z, 1 – 9. The special characters are *, +, =, #, /, %, &, !, and ?.
is it possible to generate a list of 400 using this format in sql server?
Thanks
Have a look at my blog post about methods to generate random strings using the pure TSQL:
"SQL: generate random character string". The second method doesn't have any string length limitations.
You can use something like on the below lines.
DECLARE #AlLChars varchar(100) = 'ABCDEFGHIJKL'
DECLARE #Numerics varchar(100) = '12345678910'
DECLARE #SpecialChars varchar(10) = '*+=#/%&!?'
DECLARE #I INT = 1
WHILE #I <= 400
BEGIN
INSERT INTO tblStrings
SELECT
RIGHT( LEFT(#AlLChars,ABS(BINARY_CHECKSUM(NEWID())%26) + 1 ),1)
+RIGHT( LEFT(#Numeric,ABS(BINARY_CHECKSUM(NEWID())%10) + 1 ),1)
+RIGHT( LEFT(#SpecialChars,ABS(BINARY_CHECKSUM(NEWID())%9) + 1 ),1)
+RIGHT( LEFT(#AlLChars,ABS(BINARY_CHECKSUM(NEWID())%26) + 1 ),1)
+RIGHT( LEFT(#SpecialChars,ABS(BINARY_CHECKSUM(NEWID())%9) + 1 ),1)
SET #I = #I + 1
END;
You can do something like this:
;WITH ALPHA AS (
SELECT DISTINCT CHAR(object_id) AS C FROM sys.columns SC
WHERE
object_id BETWEEN ASCII('A') AND ASCII('Z')
OR object_id BETWEEN ASCII('0') AND ASCII('9')
), SPC AS(
SELECT DISTINCT CHAR(object_id) AS S FROM sys.columns SC
WHERE
object_id IN (ASCII('*'), ASCII('+'), ASCII('='), ASCII('#'), ASCII('/'), ASCII('%'), ASCII('&'), ASCII('!'))
)
SELECT TOP 10 A1.C + A2.C + A3.C + S1.S + S2.S + S3.S
FROM
ALPHA A1, ALPHA A2, ALPHA A3, SPC S1, SPC S2, SPC S3
ORDER BY NEWID()
Try it on rextester: stackoverflow-54809150-auto-string-generator
Adjust quantity and position of symbols as you need.
Beware:
It is quite resource consuming!
If you need to run it a lot of times - prepare table(s) with computed values and select from them.
Related
I am trying to replace SQL results with all the middle values with asterix, *. All results are words. I am using SSMS.
The words that are 4-5 letters, it should only show 1 letter in the beginning, one to the end.
6 letters and more, it it should only show 2 letter in the beginning, 2 letters in the end.
1-3 letters, no replacement.
For example:
(I am now using - instead of * so it does not make the text bold).
"Banana" 6 letters should become ba--na
"False" 5 letters should become F---e
"a" stays the same
"Selin is a vegetable and banana is a fruit" becomes "S---n is a ve-----le and ba--na is a f---t."
What I have done so far, is to make this for emails, after the #. But now I want it to happen with every word of the result.
What I've done:
DECLARE #String VARCHAR(100) = 'sample#gmail.com'
SELECT STUFF(STUFF(#STring,
CHARINDEX('#',#String)+2,
(CHARINDEX('.',#String, CHARINDEX('#',#String))-CHARINDEX('#',#String)-3),
REPLICATE('*',CHARINDEX('.',#String, CHARINDEX('#',#String))-CHARINDEX('#',#String)))
,2
,CHARINDEX('#',#String)-3
,REPLICATE('*',CHARINDEX('#',#String)-3))```
With result s----e#g------l.com
instead of -
And I tried the mask method
Select
--select first character from Email and use replicate
SUBSTRING(Sxolia,1,1) + REPLICATE('*',5)+
--function to put asterisks
SUBSTRING(Sxolia,CHARINDEX('#',Sxolia),len(Sxolia)-CHARINDEX('#',Sxolia)+1)
--at this statement i select this part #gmail,com and to first part to become like this A*****#gmail.com
as Emailmask
From [mytable]
With result
B***** Bana is a fruit
And
declare #str nvarchar(max)
select #str = '123456'
select '****' + substring(#str, 5, len(#str) - 3)
Result: ****56
Not what I am looking for.
How should I look into this?
If I had to deal with this in SQL Server I'd operate on each word as a row, however using string_split is not (currently) an option since it does not guarantee ordering.
The following uses json to split the string as an array and provides a key value for ordering, which allows the words to be aggregated in the correct order:
select t.Sentence,
String_Agg( masked, ' ') within group(order by seq) Masked
from t
cross apply (
select seq, [value] word,
case
when l<=3 then [value]
when l<=5 then Stuff([value],2,l-2,Replicate('*',l-2))
else
Stuff([value],3,l-4,Replicate('*',l-4))
end Masked
from (
select j.[value], 1 + Convert(tinyint,j.[key]) Seq
from OpenJson(Concat('["',replace(t.Sentence,' ', '","'),'"]')) j
)w
cross apply (values(Len([value])))x(l)
)w
group by t.Sentence;
See working demo
Result:
I'm not sure how e-mail fits into all this because you're asking for word masks, so I'm going to assume you actually want this. Use divide and conquer to implement this, so first implement an expression that would do this for simplest cases (e.g. single words). Then if you need it for e-mails, just split the e-mails however you see fit and then apply the same expression.
The expression itself is rather simple:
SELECT *
FROM (VALUES
('banana'),
('selin'),
('vegetable')
) words(word)
CROSS
APPLY (SELECT CASE
WHEN ln BETWEEN 4 AND 5
THEN LEFT(word, 1) + REPLICATE('*', ln-2) + RIGHT(word, 1)
WHEN ln >= 6
THEN LEFT(word, 2) + REPLICATE('*', ln-4) + RIGHT(word, 2)
ELSE word
END as result
FROM (VALUES (LEN(words.word))) x(ln)
) calc
This already provides the expected result. You could define a function out of this, if you have the permissions, and use it like so:
SELECT *
FROM (VALUES
('banana'),
('selin'),
('vegetable')
) words(word)
CROSS
APPLY fnMaskWord(word)
Here's a working demo on dbfiddle, it includes the statement to create the function.
Expanding on a few answers:
select case when len(#String) <= 3 then #String
when len(#String) > 3 AND len(#String) <= 5 then
substring(#String, 1, 2) +
REPLICATE('*', Len(#String) - 2) +
substring(#String, Len(#String) - 1, 2)
when len(#String) >= 6 then
substring(#String, 1, 2) +
REPLICATE('*', Len(#String) - 2) +
substring(#String, Len(#String) - 1, 2)
else 'unrecognized length!'
If the length of the string is less than or equal to 3, return the string.
If the length of the string is more than 3 and less than or equal to 5 then create a substring starting at position 1, then replicate * by the length of the string -2 and finally add another substring -1 from the end of the string.
Similar for if the result is over 6 characters.
Else unrecognized length!
Hope this helps understand what's going on!
Maybe this can help
declare #t table (word varchar(50))
insert into #t values ('banana'), ('selin'), ('vegetable')
select case when len(t.word) < 3 then t.word
else left(t.word, 1) + -- take first char from left
replicate('*', Len(t.word) - 2) + -- fill middle with *
right(t.word, 1) -- take last char from right
end
from #t t
this returns
COLUMN1
b****a
s***l
v*******e
If you want to keep 2 chars left and right when the len > 5 then maybe this
select case when len(t.word) < 3 then t.word
when len(t.word) < 6 then
left(t.word, 1) +
replicate('*', len(t.word) - 2) +
right(t.word, 1)
else left(t.word, 2) +
replicate('*', len(t.word) - 4) +
right(t.word, 2)
end
from #t t
The result
COLUMN1
ba**na
s***l
ve*****le
EDIT: What if there is a whole sentence ?
Well then we first split the sentence in words,
and then concat the individual words back together while putting the ** in them
declare #t table (word varchar(50))
insert into #t values ('banana'), ('selin'), ('vegetable'), ('Banana is a fruit')
select t.word,
-- put the words back togheter into the sentence, and ** them while we are at it
( select string_agg(case when len(value) < 3 then value
when len(value) < 6 then
left(value, 1) +
replicate('*', len(value) - 2) +
right(value, 1)
else left(value, 2) +
replicate('*', len(value) - 4) +
right(value, 2)
end,
' ')
)
from #t t
cross apply string_split(t.word, ' ') s -- split the sentence into words
group by t.word
the result is
word COLUMN1
---- -------
banana ba**na
Banana is a fruit Ba**na is a f***t
selin s***n
vegetable ve*****le
I'm building a Markov chain name generator. I'm trying to replace a while loop with a recursive CTE. Limitations in using top and order by in the recursive part of the CTE have led me down the following path.
The point of all of this is to generate names, based on a model, which is just another word that I've chunked out into three character segments, stored in three columns in the Markov_Model table. The next character in the sequence will be a character from the Markov_Model, such that the 1st and 2nd characters in the model match the penultimate and ultimate character in the word being generated. Rather than generate a probability matrix for the that third character, I'm using a scalar function that finds all the characters that fit the criteria, and gets one of them randomly: order by newid().
The problem is that this formulation of the CTE gets the desired number of rows in the anchor segment, but the union that recursively calls the CTE only unions one row from the anchor. I've attached a sample of the desired output at the bottom.
The query:
;with names as
(
select top 5
cast('+' as nvarchar(50)) as char1,
cast('+' as nvarchar(50)) as char2,
cast(char3 as nvarchar(50)) as char3,
cast('++' + char3 as nvarchar(100)) as name_in_progress,
1 as iteration
from markov_Model
where char1 is null
and char2 is null
order by newid() -- Get some random starting characters
union all
select
n.char2 as char1,
n.char3 as char2,
cast(fnc.addition as nvarchar(50)) as char3,
cast(n.name_in_progress + fnc.addition as nvarchar(100)),
1 + n.iteration
from names n
cross apply (
-- This function takes the preceding two characters,
-- and gets a random character that follows the pattern
select isnull(dbo.[fn_markov_getNext] (n.char2, n.char3), ',') as addition
) fnc
)
select *
from names
option (maxrecursion 3) -- For debug
The trouble is the union only unions one row.
Example output:
char1 char2 char3 name_in_progress iteration
+ + F ++F 1
+ + N ++N 1
+ + K ++K 1
+ + S ++S 1
+ + B ++B 1
+ B a ++Ba 2
B a c ++Bac 3
a c h ++Bach 4
Note I'm using + and , as null replacers/delimeters.
What I want to see is the entirety of the previous recursion, with the addition of the new characters to the name_in_progress; each pass should modify the entirely of the previous pass.
My desired output would be:
Top 10 of the Markov_Model table:
Text of the function that gets the next character from the Markov_Model:
CREATEFUNCTION [dbo].[fn_markov_getNext]
(
#char2 nvarchar(1),
#char3 nvarchar(1)
)
RETURNS nvarchar(1)
AS
BEGIN
DECLARE #newChar nvarchar(1)
set #newChar = (
select top 1
isnull(char3, ',')
from markov_Model mm
where isnull(mm.char1, '+') = isnull(#char2, '+')
and isnull(mm.char2, '+') = isnull(#char3, ',')
order by (select new_id from vw_getGuid) -- A view that calls newid()
)
return #newChar
END
Currently, I have an data set that is structured as follows:
CREATE TABLE notes (
date DATE NOT NULL,
author VARCHAR(100) NOT NULL,
type CHAR NOT NULL,
line_number INT NOT NULL,
note VARCHAR(4000) NOT NULL
);
Some sample date:
Date, Author, Type, Line Number, Note
2015-01-01, Abe, C, 1, First 4000 character string
2015-01-01, Abe, C, 2, Second 4000 character string
2015-01-01, Abe, C, 3, Third 4000 character string
2015-01-01, Bob, C, 1, First 4000 character string
2015-01-01, Bob, C, 2, Second 1000 character string
2015-01-01, Cal, C, 1, First 3568 character string
This data is to be migrated to a new SQL Server structure that is defined as:
CREATE TABLE notes (
date DATE NOT NULL,
author VARCHAR(100) NOT NULL,
type CHAR NOT NULL,
note VARCHAR(8000) NOT NULL
);
I would like to prefix to the multi-line (those with more than 8000 characters when combined) Notes with "Date - Author - Part X of Y // ", and place a space between concatenated strings so the data would end up like:
Date, Author, Type, Note
2015-01-01, Abe, C, 2015-01-01 - Abe - Part 1 of 2 // First 4000 character string First 3959 characters of the second 4000 character string
2015-01-01, Abe, C, 2015-01-01 - Abe - Part 2 of 2 // Remaining 41 characters of the second 4000 character string Third (up to) 4000 character string
2015-01-01, Bob, C, First 4000 character string Second 1000 character string
2015-01-01, Cal, C, First 3568 character string
I'm looking for ways to accomplish this transformation. Initially, I had an intermediate step to simple combine (coalesce) all the Note strings where Date, Author, Type are shared together but was not able to split.
Okay, so, this was a bit of a challenge but I got there in the end. Has been a thoroughly enjoyable distraction from my regular work :D
The code assumes that you will never have a note that is longer than 72,000 total characters, in that the logic which works out how much extra text is added by the Part x in y prefix assumes that x and y are single digit numbers. This could easily be remedied by padding any single digits with leading zeros, which would also ensure ordering is correct.
If you need anything explained, the comments in the code should be sufficient:
-- Declare the test data:
declare #a table ([Date] date
,author varchar(100)
,type char
,line_number int
,note varchar(8000)
,final_line int
,new_lines int
)
insert into #a values
('2015-01-01','Abel','C',1,'This is a note that is 100 characters long----------------------------------------------------------' ,null,null)
,('2015-01-01','Abel','C',2,'This is a note that is 100 characters long----------------------------------------------------------' ,null,null)
,('2015-01-01','Abel','C',3,'This is a note that is 83 characters long------------------------------------------' ,null,null)
,('2015-01-01','Bob' ,'C',1,'This is a note that is 100 characters long----------------------------------------------------------' ,null,null)
,('2015-01-01','Bob' ,'C',2,'This is a note that is 43 characters long--' ,null,null)
,('2015-01-01','Cal' ,'C',1,'This is a note that is 50 characters long---------' ,null,null)
---------------------------------------
-- Start the actual data processing. --
---------------------------------------
declare #MaxFieldLen decimal(10,2) = 100 -- Set this to your 8000 characters limit you have. I have used 100 so I didn't have to generate and work with really long text values.
-- Create Numbers table. This will perform better if created as a permanent table:
if object_id('tempdb..#Numbers') is not null
drop table #Numbers
;with e00(n) as (select 1 union all select 1)
,e02(n) as (select 1 from e00 a, e00 b)
,e04(n) as (select 1 from e02 a, e02 b)
,e08(n) as (select 1 from e04 a, e04 b)
,e16(n) as (select 1 from e08 a, e08 b)
,e32(n) as (select 1 from e16 a, e16 b)
,cte(n) as (select row_number() over (order by n) from e32)
select n-1 as Number
into #Numbers
from cte
where n <= 1000001
-- Calculate some useful figures to be used in chopping up the total note. This will need to be done across the table before doing anything else:
update #a
set final_line = t.final_line
,new_lines = t.new_lines
from #a a
inner join (select Date
,author
,type
,max(line_number) as final_line -- We only want the final line from the CTE later on, so we need a way of identifying that the line_number we are working with the last one.
-- Calculate the total number of lines that will result from the additional text being added:
,case when sum(len(note)) > #MaxFieldLen -- If the Note is long enough to be broken into two lines:
then ceiling( -- Find the next highest integer value for
sum(len(note)) -- the total length of all the notes
/ (#MaxFieldLen - len(convert(nvarchar(10), Date, 121) + ' - ' + author + ' - Part x of x //_')) -- divided by the max note size allowed minus the length of the additional text.
)
else 1 -- Otherwise return 1.
end as new_lines
from #a
group by Date
,author
,type
) t
on a.Date = t.Date
and a.author = t.author
and a.type = t.type
-- Combine the Notes using a recursive cte:
;with cte as
(
select Date
,author
,type
,line_number
,final_line
,note
,new_lines
from #a
where line_number = 1
union all
select a.Date
,a.author
,a.type
,a.line_number
,a.final_line
,c.note + a.note
,a.new_lines
from cte c
join #a a
on c.Date = a.Date
and c.author = a.author
and c.type = a.type
and c.line_number+1 = a.line_number
)
select c1.Date
,c1.author
,c1.type
,c2.note
from cte c1
cross apply (select case when c1.new_lines > 1 -- If there is more than one line to be returned, build up the prefix:
then convert(nvarchar(10), Date, 121) + ' - ' + author + ' - Part ' + cast(Number+1 as nvarchar(10)) + ' of ' + cast(c1.new_lines as nvarchar(10)) + ' // '
+ substring(c1.note -- and then append the next (Max note length - Generated prefix) number of characters in the note:
,1 + Number * (#MaxFieldLen - len(convert(nvarchar(10), Date, 121) + ' - ' + author + ' - Part x of x //_'))
,(#MaxFieldLen - len(convert(nvarchar(10), Date, 121) + ' - ' + author + ' - Part x of x //_'))-1
)
else c1.note
end as note
from #Numbers
where Number >= 0
and Number < case when c1.new_lines = 1
then 1
else len(c1.note) / (#MaxFieldLen - len(convert(nvarchar(10), Date, 121) + ' - ' + author + ' - Part x of x //_'))
end
) c2
where line_number = final_line
order by 1,2,3,4
I have a database containing about 50 tables, each table has about 10-100 columns with max 1 milion rows in each table. (quite big like for a newbie :P)
Database is old and some rows contains special characters (invisible characters or some weird unicode) and I would like to remove those characters.
I was searching google and I found a small snippet that lists all columns with specific type:
SELECT
OBJECT_NAME(col.OBJECT_ID) AS [TableName]
,col.[name] AS [ColName]
,typ.[name] AS [TypeName]
FROM
sys.all_columns col
INNER JOIN sys.types typ
ON col.user_type_id = typ.user_type_id
WHERE
col.user_type_id IN (167,231)
AND
OBJECT_NAME(col.OBJECT_ID) = 'Orders'
This lists all columns that are varchar or nvarchar.
I found two functions, one that returns a table of all characters from a string and second that checks if string contains any special characters:
CREATE FUNCTION AllCharactersInString (#str nvarchar(max))
RETURNS TABLE
AS
RETURN
(SELECT
substring(B.main_string,C.int_seq,1) AS character
,Unicode(substring(B.main_string,C.int_seq,1)) AS unicode_value
FROM
(SELECT
#str AS main_string) B,(SELECT
A.int_seq
FROM
(SELECT
row_number() OVER (ORDER BY name) AS int_seq
FROM
sys.all_objects) A
WHERE
A.int_seq <= len(#str)) C
)
And second:
CREATE FUNCTION ContainsInvisibleCharacter (#str nvarchar(max))
RETURNS int
AS
BEGIN
DECLARE #Result Int
IF exists
(SELECT
*
FROM
AllCharactersInString(#str)
WHERE
unicode_value IN (1,9,10,11,12,13,14,28,29,31,129,141,143,144,157,160))
BEGIN SET #Result = 1
END
ELSE
BEGIN SET #Result = 0
END
RETURN #Result
END
My question is how to combine thos two functions into one (if it is possible and if it will be faster) and second: how to run that function on all records in all columns (that are specific type) in a table.
I have this code:
SELECT
O.Order_Id
,Rn_Descriptor
FROM
dbo.Order O
WHERE
dbo.ContainsInvisibleCharacter(O.Rn_Descriptor) = 1
AND
O.Order_Id IN (SELECT TOP 1000
Order.Order_Id
FROM
dbo.Order
WHERE
Order.Rn_Descriptor IS NOT NULL
)
But it works sooo slow :/
Mayby there is a fastest way to remove unwanted characters?
What will be fine is to find rows containing those characters, list them, then I could manually check them.
You can do this more efficiently using LIKE.
CREATE FUNCTION ContainsInvisibleCharacter(#str nvarchar(max)) RETURNS int
AS
BEGIN
RETURN
(SELECT CASE WHEN #str LIKE
'%[' + NCHAR(1) + NCHAR(9) + NCHAR(10) + NCHAR(11) + NCHAR(12)
+ NCHAR(13) + NCHAR(14) + NCHAR(28) + NCHAR(29) + NCHAR(31)
+ NCHAR(129) + NCHAR(141) + NCHAR(143) + NCHAR(144)
+ NCHAR(157) + NCHAR(160) + ']%'
THEN 1 ELSE 0 END)
END
I have a text like: Sentence one. Sentence two. Sentence three.
I want it to be:
Sentence one.
Sentence two.
Sentence three.
I assume I can replace '.' with '.' + char(10) + char(13), but how can I go about bullets? '•' character works fine if printed manually I just do not know how to bullet every sentence including the first.
-- Initial string
declare #text varchar(100)
set #text = 'Sentence one. Sentence two. Sentence three.'
-- Setting up replacement text - new lines (assuming this works) and bullets ( char(149) )
declare #replacement varchar(100)
set #replacement = '.' + char(10) + char(13) + char(149)
-- Adding a bullet at the beginning and doing the replacement, but this will also add a trailing bullet
declare #processedText varchar(100)
set #processedText = char(149) + ' ' + replace(#text, '.', #replacement)
-- Figure out length of substring to select in the next step
declare #substringLength int
set #substringLength = LEN(#processedText) - CHARINDEX(char(149), REVERSE(#processedText))
-- Removes trailing bullet
select substring(#processedText, 0, #substringLength)
I've tested here - https://data.stackexchange.com/stackoverflow/qt/119364/
I should point out that doing this in T-SQL doesn't seem correct. T-SQL is meant to process data; any presentation-specific work should be done in the code that calls this T-SQL (C# or whatever you're using).
Here's my over-the-top approach but I feel it's a fairly solid approach. It combines classic SQL problem solving techniques of Number tables for string slitting and use of the FOR XML for concatenating the split lines back together. The code is long but the only place you'd need to actually edit is the SOURCE_DATA section.
No knock on #Jeremy Wiggins approach, but I prefer mine as it lends itself well to a set based approach in addition to being fairly efficient code.
-- This code will rip lines apart based on #delimiter
-- and put them back together based on #rebind
DECLARE
#delimiter char(1)
, #rebind varchar(10);
SELECT
#delimiter = '.'
, #rebind = char(10) + char(149) + ' ';
;
-- L0 to L5 simulate a numbers table
-- http://billfellows.blogspot.com/2009/11/fast-number-generator.html
WITH L0 AS
(
SELECT
0 AS C
UNION ALL
SELECT
0
)
, L1 AS
(
SELECT
0 AS c
FROM
L0 AS A
CROSS JOIN L0 AS B
)
, L2 AS
(
SELECT
0 AS c
FROM
L1 AS A
CROSS JOIN L1 AS B
)
, L3 AS
(
SELECT
0 AS c
FROM
L2 AS A
CROSS JOIN L2 AS B
)
, L4 AS
(
SELECT
0 AS c
FROM
L3 AS A
CROSS JOIN L3 AS B
)
, L5 AS
(
SELECT
0 AS c
FROM
L4 AS A
CROSS JOIN L4 AS B
)
, NUMS AS
(
SELECT
ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDER BY (SELECT NULL)) AS number
FROM
L5
)
, SOURCE_DATA (ID, content) AS
(
-- This query simulates your input data
SELECT 1, 'Sentence one. Sentence two. Sentence three.'
UNION ALL SELECT 7, 'In seed time learn, in harvest teach, in winter enjoy.Drive your cart and your plow over the bones of the dead.The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom.Prudence is a rich, ugly old maid courted by Incapacity.He who desires but acts not, breeds pestilence.'
)
, MAX_LENGTH AS
(
-- this query is rather important. The current NUMS query generates a
-- very large set of numbers but we only need 1 to maximum lenth of our
-- source data. We can take advantage of a 2008 feature of letting
-- TOP take a dynamic value
SELECT TOP (SELECT MAX(LEN(SD.content)) AS max_length FROM SOURCE_DATA SD)
N.number
FROM
NUMS N
)
, MULTI_LINES AS
(
-- This query will make many lines out a single line based on the supplied delimiter
-- Need to retain the ID (or some unique value from original data to regroup it
-- http://www.sommarskog.se/arrays-in-sql-2005.html#tblnum
SELECT
SD.ID
, LTRIM(substring(SD.content, Number, charindex(#delimiter, SD.content + #delimiter, Number) - Number)) + #delimiter AS lines
FROM
MAX_LENGTH
CROSS APPLY
SOURCE_DATA SD
WHERE
Number <= len(SD.content)
AND substring(#delimiter + SD.content, Number, 1) = #delimiter
)
, RECONSITITUE (content, ID) AS
(
-- use classic concatenation to put it all back together
-- using CR/LF * (space) as delimiter
-- as a correlated sub query and joined back to our original table to preserve IDs
-- https://stackoverflow.com/questions/5196371/sql-query-concatenating-results-into-one-string
SELECT DISTINCT
STUFF
(
(
SELECT #rebind + M.lines
FROM MULTI_LINES M
WHERE M.ID = ML.ID
FOR XML PATH('')
)
, 1
, 1
, '')
, ML.ID
FROM
MULTI_LINES ML
)
SELECT
R.content
, R.ID
FROM
RECONSITITUE R
Results
content ID
----------------------------------------------------------- ---
• In seed time learn, in harvest teach, in winter enjoy.
• Drive your cart and your plow over the bones of the dead.
• The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom.
• Prudence is a rich, ugly old maid courted by Incapacity.
• He who desires but acts not, breeds pestilence. 7
• Sentence one.
• Sentence two.
• Sentence three. 1
(2 row(s) affected)
References
Number table
Splitting strings via number table
SQL Query - Concatenating Results into One String
select '• On '+ cast(getdate() as varchar)+' I discovered how to do this '
Sample