How to store semicolon separated long string into multiple columns? - sql

Question

Basically due to restriction on live server, I cannot use text file so I need to hard code the data in T-SQL code.
So first I created string from text file like this:
("001122;Sale Item 1", "001123;Sale Item 23", "001124;Sale Item 24", .... )
I have this table structure:
DECLARE #Product TABLE(ProductCode INT NOT NULL, Description nvarchar(100) NOT NULL)
First I need to store code and description in a table variable. Once that's done, then I can easily map it to the physical table and update the records.
How can I achieve this something similar to:
insert into #Product(ProductCode, Description)
values ("001122;Sale Item 1", "001123;Sale Item 23", "001124;Sale Item 24", .... )
Code Description
001122 Sale Item1
001123 Sale Item2
001124 Sale Item3

Answer 1

If you have fixed format like in example then you can achieve desired output simply using CHARINDEX and SUBSTRING
SELECT
SUBSTRING(description, 0, CHARINDEX(';', DESCRIPTION, 0)) code,
SUBSTRING(description, CHARINDEX(';', DESCRIPTION, 0)+1, LEN(DESCRIPTION)) Description
FROM #Product
OUTPUT:
code Description
------------------------
001122 Sale Item 1
001123 Sale Item 23
001124 Sale Item 24

Answer 2

I crated a sample for you, please check this
declare #Questions varchar(100)= '"001122;Sale Item 1", "001123;Sale Item 23", "001124;Sale Item 24"'
DECLARE #myXML AS XML = N'<H><r>' +Replace(#Questions, ',', '</r><r>') + '</r></H>'
select #myXML
;WITH cte
AS (
SELECT CAST(N'<H><r>' + Replace(Vals.id.value('.', 'NVARCHAR(50)') ,';' , '</r><r>') + '</r></H>' as XML) AS val
FROM #myXML.nodes('/H/r') AS Vals(id)
)
,mycte1 as (
SELECT distinct
Replace( S.a.value('(/H/r)[1]', 'NVARCHAR(50)') , '"', '') AS c1,
Replace( S.a.value('(/H/r)[2]', 'NVARCHAR(50)') , '"', '') AS c2
FROM cte CROSS APPLY val.nodes('/H/r') S(a)
)
select * from mycte1
The output will be
c1 c2
001123 Sale Item 23
001124 Sale Item 24
001122 Sale Item 1

Answer 3

Here we go matey:
DECLARE #MyString nvarchar(max) = '"001122;Sale Item 1", "001123;Sale Item 23", "001124;Sale Item 24"';
DECLARE #delimiter1 nvarchar(1)
, #delimiter2 nvarchar(1)
, #Start1 int
, #End1 int
, #Length int
, #cNEXTVALUE nvarchar(1000)
, #cNEXTVALUE2 nvarchar(1000)
, #StringLength int;
DECLARE #Product TABLE (
ProductCode int NOT NULL
, Description nvarchar(100) NOT NULL );
SET #MyString = RTRIM(LTRIM(#MyString));
SET #MyString = REPLACE(#MyString, CHAR(13), '');
SET #MyString = REPLACE(#MyString, CHAR(10), '');
SET #delimiter1 = ';';
SET #delimiter2 = ',';
SET #MyString = REPLACE(#MyString, '"', '')+#delimiter2;
SET #StringLength = LEN(#MyString);
SELECT #Start1 = 0
, #End1 = CHARINDEX(#delimiter1, #MyString, 1);
SELECT #Length = #End1 - #Start1;
WHILE #Length > 0
BEGIN
SET #cNEXTVALUE = SUBSTRING(#MyString, #Start1, #Length);
SET #Start1 = #End1 + 1;
SET #End1 = CHARINDEX(#delimiter2, #MyString, #Start1);
SELECT #Length = #End1 - #Start1;
SET #cNEXTVALUE2 = SUBSTRING(#MyString, #Start1, #Length);
IF LEN(RTRIM(LTRIM(#cNEXTVALUE))) > 0
BEGIN
INSERT INTO #Product
( ProductCode
, Description
)
VALUES
( #cNEXTVALUE, #cNEXTVALUE2 );
END;
SET #Start1 = #End1 + 2;
SET #End1 = CHARINDEX(#delimiter1, #MyString, #Start1);
SELECT #Length = #End1 - #Start1;
END;
SELECT *
FROM #Product;