Splitting one fields into several comments - SQL - sql

Question

I have a table that have multiple comments in one field.
For eg,
1) CLAIM REFILED Rebecca Byrd 1/17/2018 3:17:53 PM PER CHGS, WE NEED
TO REFILE THIS CLAIM Rebecca Byrd 1/10/2018 1:55:37 PM WAITING ON HOME
PLAN TO REPLY Rebecca Byrd 1/2/2018 1:58:31 PM A/R SENT TO CHGS ON
THIS CLAIM. DENIED AS A DUPLICATE, BUT THERE WAS ONLY ONE CLAIM IN
ILINKBLUE FOR THIS DOS. Test Byrd 12/29/2017 6:34:36 AM
2) HCRR ACCOUNT Sheila Johnson 9/28/2017 7:37:55 AM
3) Contacted VA VISN spoke with Mary she stated pmt $18.32 was made on
06/27/2014 - #675678- she gave me treasury uh# 86-72-1141. I
contacted TEST and spoke with TEST - i gave her number, date and pmt -
she found ck and pmt of $0.00 for date 06/27/2014- she said it was
cashed under blah bank - trace #0jgdjgkd. Test Test 7/28/2017 1:21:11
PM
And I want to split it into different rows like this
1) CLAIM REFILED Rebecca Byrd 1/17/2018 3:17:53 PM
2) PER BCBS, WE NEED TO REFILE THIS CLAIM Rebecca Byrd 1/10/2018 1:55:37 PM
3) WAITING ON HOME PLAN TO REPLY Rebecca Byrd 1/2/2018 1:58:31 PM
4) A/R SENT TO BCBS ON THIS CLAIM. DENIED AS A DUPLICATE, BUT THERE WAS ONLY ONE CLAIM IN ILINKBLUE FOR THIS DOS. Rebecca Byrd 12/29/2017 6:34:36 AM
All the comments will end with a date. So I will thinking I can use AM or PM as a separator. But Having difficulty separating it.

Answer 1

First of all: This design is very bad and you should - if there is any chance -
really change this! Use this approach to transfer all comments into a related side table.
Your question is not very clear, but my magic crystal ball was in a good mood and telling me, that you might be looking for this:
CREATE FUNCTION dbo.SplitCommentOnTime(#str VARCHAR(MAX))
RETURNS TABLE
AS
RETURN
WITH recCTE AS
(
SELECT 1 AS Pos
,LEFT(#str,PATINDEX('%:[0-5][0-9] [AP]M %',#str + ' ')+5) AS Part
,SUBSTRING(#str,PATINDEX('%:[0-5][0-9] [AP]M %',#str + ' ')+7,LEN(#str)) AS Remainder
UNION ALL
SELECT Pos+1
,LEFT(Remainder,PATINDEX('%:[0-5][0-9] [AP]M %',Remainder + ' ')+5)
,SUBSTRING(Remainder,PATINDEX('%:[0-5][0-9] [AP]M %',Remainder + ' ')+7,LEN(#str))
FROM recCTE
WHERE PATINDEX('%:[0-5][0-9] [AP]M %',Remainder + ' ')>0
)
SELECT Pos,Part
FROM recCTE;
GO
DECLARE #tbl TABLE(ID INT IDENTITY,Comment VARCHAR(MAX));
INSERT INTO #tbl VALUES
('CLAIM REFILED Rebecca Byrd 1/17/2018 3:17:53 PM PER CHGS, WE NEED TO REFILE THIS CLAIM Rebecca Byrd 1/10/2018 1:55:37 PM WAITING ON HOME PLAN TO REPLY Rebecca Byrd 1/2/2018 1:58:31 PM A/R SENT TO CHGS ON THIS CLAIM. DENIED AS A DUPLICATE, BUT THERE WAS ONLY ONE CLAIM IN ILINKBLUE FOR THIS DOS. Test Byrd 12/29/2017 6:34:36 AM')
,('HCRR ACCOUNT Sheila Johnson 9/28/2017 7:37:55 AM')
,('Contacted VA VISN spoke with Mary she stated pmt $18.32 was made on 06/27/2014 - #675678- she gave me treasury uh# 86-72-1141. I contacted TEST and spoke with TEST - i gave her number, date and pmt - she found ck and pmt of $0.00 for date 06/27/2014- she said it was cashed under blah bank - trace #0jgdjgkd. Test Test 7/28/2017 1:21:11 PM')
SELECT *
FROM #tbl
OUTER APPLY dbo.SplitCommentOnTime(Comment);
GO
DROP FUNCTION dbo.SplitCommentOnTime;
The result
ID Pos Part
1 1 CLAIM REFILED Rebecca Byrd 1/17/2018 3:17:53 PM
1 2 PER CHGS, WE NEED TO REFILE THIS CLAIM Rebecca Byrd 1/10/2018 1:55:37 PM
1 3 WAITING ON HOME PLAN TO REPLY Rebecca Byrd 1/2/2018 1:58:31 PM
1 4 A/R SENT TO CHGS ON THIS CLAIM. DENIED AS A DUPLICATE, BUT THERE WAS ONLY ONE CLAIM IN ILINKBLUE FOR THIS DOS. Test Byrd 12/29/2017 6:34:36 AM
2 1 HCRR ACCOUNT Sheila Johnson 9/28/2017 7:37:55 AM
3 1 Contacted VA VISN spoke with Mary she stated pmt $18.32 was made on 06/27/2014 - #675678- she gave me treasury uh# 86-72-1141. I contacted TEST and spoke with TEST - i gave her number, date and pmt - she found ck and pmt of $0.00 for date 06/27/2014- she said it was cashed under blah bank - trace #0jgdjgkd. Test Test 7/28/2017 1:21:11 PM
Some explanation
The function uses a recursive CTE jumping through your strings looking for a pattern. the pattern is %:[0-5][0-9] [AP]M %. That means: a double point, followed by one digit out of 0-5, then a digit 0-9, a blank, either A or P and then an M and a blank.
The rest is LEFT and SUBSTRING
Hint
After having split these string monsters you might use REVERT() and search for the the third blank. Take this fragment, again reverted, and convert it to a real DATETIME. This way you'd get a side table with a good query performance.
You might get the commenter out of this the same way...