Split string into words in columns - sql

Question

I am looking to split a string into words in columns in SQL Server 2014. I have found a few solutions but all of them are giving the results in rows. How can I break the below string into columns?
"First Second Third Fourth Fifth"

Answer 1

You can use XML and grab the elements by their position:
DECLARE #YourString VARCHAR(100)='First Second Third Fourth Fifth';
WITH StringAsXML AS
(
SELECT CAST('<x>' + REPLACE((SELECT #YourString AS [*] FOR XML PATH('')),' ','</x><x>') + '</x>' AS XML) TheXml
)
SELECT TheXml.value('x[1]/text()[1]','nvarchar(max)') AS FirstElement
,TheXml.value('x[2]/text()[1]','nvarchar(max)') AS SecondElement
,TheXml.value('x[3]/text()[1]','nvarchar(max)') AS ThirdElement
,TheXml.value('x[4]/text()[1]','nvarchar(max)') AS FourthElement
,TheXml.value('x[5]/text()[1]','nvarchar(max)') AS FifthElement
FROM StringAsXML;
Remark
You can use PIVOT, conditional aggregation, FROM(VALUES()) or the above. but any of these approaches will need a known set of columns (a known count of elements or at least a maximum count of elements).
If you cannot rely on such a knowledge, you can use dynamically created SQL. This would mean to create one of the working statements on string base and use EXEC for a dynamic execution.
UPDATE: A dynamic approach
This approach will deal with a variable number of elements
DECLARE #YourString VARCHAR(100)='First Second Third Fourth Fifth';
DECLARE #Delimiter CHAR(1)=' ';
DECLARE #countElements INT = LEN(#YourString)-LEN(REPLACE(#YourString,#Delimiter,''));
DECLARE #Statement VARCHAR(MAX)=
'WITH StringAsXML AS
(
SELECT CAST(''<x>'' + REPLACE((SELECT ''ReplaceYourString'' AS [*] FOR XML PATH('''')),'' '',''</x><x>'') + ''</x>'' AS XML) TheXml
)
SELECT ReplaceColumnList
FROM StringAsXML;';
DECLARE #columnList VARCHAR(MAX);
WITH cte AS
(
SELECT 1 AS ElementCounter
,CAST('TheXml.value(''x[1]/text()[1]'',''nvarchar(max)'') AS Element_01' AS VARCHAR(MAX)) AS ColStatement
UNION ALL
SELECT cte.ElementCounter+1
,cte.ColStatement + CAST(',TheXml.value(''x[' + CAST(cte.ElementCounter+1 AS VARCHAR(10)) + ']/text()[1]'',''nvarchar(max)'') AS Element_' + REPLACE(STR(cte.ElementCounter + 1,2),' ','0') AS VARCHAR(MAX))
FROM cte
WHERE cte.ElementCounter <= #countElements
)
SELECT #columnList=(SELECT TOP 1 cte.ColStatement FROM cte ORDER BY cte.ElementCounter DESC)
--replace the string you want to split
SET #Statement = REPLACE(#Statement,'ReplaceYourString',#YourString);
--replace the columnList
SET #Statement = REPLACE(#Statement,'ReplaceColumnList',#columnList);
EXEC(#Statement);
UPDATE 2: The smallest fully inlined and position-safe splitter I know of
Try this out:
DECLARE #inp VARCHAR(200) = 'First Second Third Fourth Fifth';
DECLARE #dlmt VARCHAR(100)=' ';
;WITH
a AS (SELECT n=0, i=-1, j=0 UNION ALL SELECT n+1, j, CHARINDEX(#dlmt, #inp, j+1) FROM a WHERE j > i),
b AS (SELECT n, SUBSTRING(#inp, i+1, IIF(j>0, j, LEN(#inp)+1)-i-1) s FROM a WHERE i >= 0)
SELECT * FROM b;
And just to get it complete: The above tiny splitter combined with PIVOT:
;WITH
a AS (SELECT n=0, i=-1, j=0 UNION ALL SELECT n+1, j, CHARINDEX(#dlmt, #inp, j+1) FROM a WHERE j > i),
b AS (SELECT n, SUBSTRING(#inp, i+1, IIF(j>0, j, LEN(#inp)+1)-i-1) s FROM a WHERE i >= 0)
SELECT p.*
FROM b
PIVOT(MAX(s) FOR n IN([1],[2],[3],[4],[5])) p;

Answer 2

You can use a SQL split string function to seperate the string into words and using the order of the word in the original string, you can use CASE statements like a PIVOT query and display as columns
Here is a sample
declare #string varchar(max) = 'First Second Third Fourth Fifth'
;with cte as (
select
case when id = 1 then val end as Col1,
case when id = 2 then val end as Col2,
case when id = 3 then val end as Col3,
case when id = 4 then val end as Col4,
case when id = 5 then val end as Col5
from dbo.split( #string,' ')
)
select
max(Col1) as Col1,
max(Col2) as Col2,
max(Col3) as Col3,
max(Col4) as Col4,
max(Col5) as Col5
from cte
If you cannot create a UDF, you can use the logic in your SQL code as follows
Please note that if you have your data in a database table column, you can simply replace column content in the first SQL CTE expression
declare #string varchar(max) = 'First Second Third Fourth Fifth'
;with cte1 as (
select convert(xml, N'<root><r>' + replace(#string,' ','</r><r>') + '</r></root>') as rawdata
), cte2 as (
select
ROW_NUMBER() over (order by getdate()) as id,
r.value('.','varchar(max)') as val
from cte1
cross apply rawdata.nodes('//root/r') as records(r)
)
select
max(Col1) as Col1,
max(Col2) as Col2,
max(Col3) as Col3,
max(Col4) as Col4,
max(Col5) as Col5
from (
select
case when id = 1 then val end as Col1,
case when id = 2 then val end as Col2,
case when id = 3 then val end as Col3,
case when id = 4 then val end as Col4,
case when id = 5 then val end as Col5
from cte2
) t

Answer 3

You may use parsename function as :
create table tab ( str varchar(100));
insert into tab values('First Second Third Fourth Fifth');
with t as
(
select replace(str,' ','.') as str
from tab
)
Select substring(str,1,charindex('.',str)-1) as col_first,
parsename(substring(str,charindex('.',str)+1,len(str)),4) as col_second,
parsename(substring(str,charindex('.',str)+1,len(str)),3) as col_third,
parsename(substring(str,charindex('.',str)+1,len(str)),2) as col_fourth,
parsename(substring(str,charindex('.',str)+1,len(str)),1) as col_fifth
from t;
col_first col_second col_third col_fourth col_fifth
--------- ---------- --------- ---------- ---------
First Second Third Fourth Fifth
P.S. firstly, need to split the main string into the parts with at most 3 three dot(.) character(otherwise the function doesn't work). It's a restriction for parsename.
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