Finding matching values in a field, that a seperated by spaces - sql

Question

In SQL Server I have a field that has delimited data (by space) in it.
E.g.
recid| Delimited data field
1| 1 2 3 4 5
2| 1 2 3 3 5
3| 1 1 1 1 1
I need to loop through all the records in the DB and interrogate the delimited data field and compare the third and fourth parts of data against each other and if they match, return the recid and the whole delimited field.
So from my example records 2 and 3 have matching data parts, so it would return:-
2|1 2 3 3 5
3|1 1 1 1 1
Because 3 3 matches, as does 1 1.
Thanks.

Answer 1

If it is always 1 digit and same format, you can try like following.
select * from #table
where SUBSTRING([data], 5, 1) = SUBSTRING([data], 7, 1)
If not (Numbers are not single digit), you can try like following.
;WITH cte
AS (SELECT F1.recid,
F1.[data],
O.splitdata,
Row_number()
OVER(
partition BY recid
ORDER BY (SELECT 1)) rn
FROM (SELECT *,
Cast('<X>' + Replace(F.data, ' ', '</X><X>') + '</X>' AS
XML)
AS
xmlfilter
FROM #table F)F1
CROSS apply (SELECT fdata.d.value('.', 'varchar(50)') AS
splitdata
FROM f1.xmlfilter.nodes('X') AS fdata(d)) O)
SELECT c1.recid,
c1.data
FROM cte c1
INNER JOIN cte c2
ON c1.recid = c2.recid
AND c1.rn = 3
AND c2.rn = 4
AND c1.splitdata = c2.splitdata
GROUP BY c1.recid,
c1.data
Online Demo

Answer 2

Need to split the data, give the row number and then compare.
Schema:
SELECT * INTO #TAB FROM (
SELECT 1, '1 2 3 4 5' UNION ALL
SELECT 2, '1 2 3 3 5' UNION ALL
SELECT 3, '1 1 1 1 1'
)A (recid , Delimited_data_field)
Solution :
;WITH CTE
AS (
SELECT recid
,Delimited_data_field
,ROW_NUMBER() OVER (PARTITION BY recid ORDER BY (SELECT 1)) RNO
,splt.X.value('.', 'INT') VAL
FROM (
SELECT recid
,Delimited_data_field
,CAST('<M>' + REPLACE(Delimited_data_field, ' ', '</M><M>') + '</M>' AS XML) DATA
FROM #TAB
) A
CROSS APPLY A.DATA.nodes('/M') splt(x)
)
SELECT C.recid
,C2.Delimited_data_field
FROM CTE C
INNER JOIN CTE C2 ON C.recid = C2.recid AND C.RNO = 3 AND C2.RNO = 4
AND C.VAL = C2.VAL
Result :
recid Delimited_data_field
2 1 2 3 3 5
3 1 1 1 1 1

Answer 3

Your question has two parts, find nth split and then compare. Your first approach should be to break the problem until you find built in functions that can do the job.
here is one method inner query return result after split and outer compares:
SELECT recid,Delimited from (
SELECT recid,Delimited, SUBSTRING(Delimited,
charindex(' ', Delimited, (charindex(' ', Delimited, 1))+2)+1,1)
third, SUBSTRING(Delimited, charindex(' ',Delimited,
(charindex(' ', Delimited, 1))+3)+1,1)
fourth FROM YourTable) tr
WHERE third = fourth
See simple substring and charindex can do the job.

Answer 4

Here is one more solution to that.
I tweaked the split function in this link (T-SQL: Opposite to string concatenation - how to split string into multiple records) a bit to make it usefule in your scenario.
Here is the function.
CREATE FUNCTION dbo.SplitAndGetNumberAt (#sep char(1), #s varchar(512), #pos int)
RETURNS INT
BEGIN
declare #val as varchar(10);
WITH Pieces(pn, start, stop) AS (
SELECT 1, 1, CHARINDEX(#sep, #s)
UNION ALL
SELECT pn + 1, stop + 1, CHARINDEX(#sep, #s, stop + 1)
FROM Pieces
WHERE stop > 0
)
SELECT #val = SUBSTRING(#s, start, CASE WHEN stop > 0 THEN stop-start ELSE 512 END)
FROM Pieces where pn = #pos;
RETURN #val
END
Now you can use this function to get 3rd and 4th position of numbers and compare easily.
select recid, deldata
from so1
where dbo.SplitAndGetNumberAt (' ', deldata, 3) = dbo.SplitAndGetNumberAt (' ', deldata, 4)
Hope it will help.

Answer 5

If you have SQL Server 2016 or higher, you may try one approach using OPENJSON() to split your input data. The important part here is the fact, that when OPENJSON parses a JSON array the indexes of the elements in the JSON text are returned as keys (0-based).
Input:
CREATE TABLE #Table (
RecId int,
Data varchar(max)
)
INSERT INTO #Table
(RecId, Data)
VALUES
(1, '1 2 3 4 5'),
(2, '1 2 3 3 5'),
(3, '1 1 1 1 1')
Statement:
SELECT
t.RecId,
t.Data
FROM #Table t
CROSS APPLY (SELECT [value] FROM OPENJSON('["' + REPLACE(t.Data,' ','","') + '"]') WHERE [key] = 2) j3
CROSS APPLY (SELECT [value] FROM OPENJSON('["' + REPLACE(t.Data,' ','","') + '"]') WHERE [key] = 3) j4
WHERE j3.[value] = j4.[value]
Output:
RecId Data
2 1 2 3 3 5
3 1 1 1 1 1

Answer 6

Just for fun, sort of crazy coding:
DECLARE #Table Table (
recid INT,
DelimitedDataField VARCHAR(32)
)
INSERT #Table (recid, DelimitedDataField)
VALUES
(1, '1 2 3 4 5'),
(2, '1 2 3 3 5'),
(3, '1 1 1 1 1')
SELECT *
FROM #Table
WHERE
SUBSTRING (
STUFF(
STUFF(
DelimitedDataField + ' - - -',
1,
CHARINDEX(' ', DelimitedDataField + ' - - -'),
''
),
1,
CHARINDEX(' ', STUFF(
DelimitedDataField + ' - - -',
1,
CHARINDEX(' ', DelimitedDataField + ' - - -'), '')
),
''),
1,
CHARINDEX(' ', STUFF(
STUFF(
DelimitedDataField + ' - - -',
1,
CHARINDEX(' ', DelimitedDataField + ' - - -'),
''
),
1,
CHARINDEX(' ', STUFF(
DelimitedDataField + ' - - -',
1,
CHARINDEX(' ', DelimitedDataField + ' - - -'), '')
),
'')
)
) =
SUBSTRING (
STUFF(
STUFF(
STUFF(
DelimitedDataField + ' - - -',
1,
CHARINDEX(' ', DelimitedDataField + ' - - -'),
''
),
1,
CHARINDEX(' ', STUFF(
DelimitedDataField + ' - - -',
1,
CHARINDEX(' ', DelimitedDataField + ' - - -'), '')
),
''),
1,
CHARINDEX(' ', STUFF(
STUFF(
DelimitedDataField + ' - - -',
1,
CHARINDEX(' ', DelimitedDataField + ' - - -'),
''
),
1,
CHARINDEX(' ', STUFF(
DelimitedDataField + ' - - -',
1,
CHARINDEX(' ', DelimitedDataField + ' - - -'), '')
),
'')
),
''
),
1,
CHARINDEX(' ', STUFF(
STUFF(
STUFF(
DelimitedDataField + ' - - -',
1,
CHARINDEX(' ', DelimitedDataField + ' - - -'),
''
),
1,
CHARINDEX(' ', STUFF(
DelimitedDataField + ' - - -',
1,
CHARINDEX(' ', DelimitedDataField + ' - - -'), '')
),
''),
1,
CHARINDEX(' ', STUFF(
STUFF(
DelimitedDataField + ' - - -',
1,
CHARINDEX(' ', DelimitedDataField + ' - - -'),
''
),
1,
CHARINDEX(' ', STUFF(
DelimitedDataField + ' - - -',
1,
CHARINDEX(' ', DelimitedDataField + ' - - -'), '')
),
'')
),
''
))
)
AND SUBSTRING (
STUFF(
STUFF(
DelimitedDataField + ' - - -',
1,
CHARINDEX(' ', DelimitedDataField + ' - - -'),
''
),
1,
CHARINDEX(' ', STUFF(
DelimitedDataField + ' - - -',
1,
CHARINDEX(' ', DelimitedDataField + ' - - -'), '')
),
''),
1,
CHARINDEX(' ', STUFF(
STUFF(
DelimitedDataField + ' - - -',
1,
CHARINDEX(' ', DelimitedDataField + ' - - -'),
''
),
1,
CHARINDEX(' ', STUFF(
DelimitedDataField + ' - - -',
1,
CHARINDEX(' ', DelimitedDataField + ' - - -'), '')
),
'')
)
) <>'-'