Split SQL Column into Multiple Rows by Regex Match - sql

Question

I'm in the middle of converting an NTEXT column into multiple records. I'm looking to split the original column by new line or json object. It's a unique scenario, to be sure, but outside of a sql environment this regex correctly matches everything I need from the original column:
({(.*)(.*\r\n)*?})|(.+\r\n).
If I have a record with a column that has the value:
Foo bar baz
hello world
{
foo: 'bar',
bar: 'foo'
}
{
foo: 'foo',
bar: 'bar'
}
I want to break it into multiple records:
| ID | Text |
---------------------
| 1 | Foo bar baz |
| 2 | hello world |
| 3 | { |
| | foo: 'bar' |
| | bar: 'foo' |
| | } |
| 4 | { |
| | foo: 'foo' |
| | bar: 'bar' |
| | } |
Any easy way to accomplish this? It's a SQL Express server.

Answer 1

With the help of a split/parse function
Declare #String varchar(max)='Foo bar baz
hello world
{
foo: ''bar'',
bar: ''foo''
}
{
foo: ''foo'',
bar: ''bar''
}'
Select ID=Row_Number() over (Order By (Select NULL))
,Text = B.RetVal
From (Select RetSeq,RetVal = IIF(CharIndex('}',RetVal)>0,'{'+RetVal,RetVal) from [dbo].[udf-Str-Parse](#String,'{')) A
Cross Apply (
Select * from [dbo].[udf-Str-Parse](A.RetVal,IIF(CharIndex('{',A.RetVal)>0,char(1),char(10)))
) B
Where B.RetVal is Not Null
Returns
ID Text
1 Foo bar baz
2 hello world
3 {
foo: 'bar',
bar: 'foo'
}
4 {
foo: 'foo',
bar: 'bar'
}
The UDF if needed
CREATE FUNCTION [dbo].[udf-Str-Parse] (#String varchar(max),#Delimiter varchar(10))
Returns Table
As
Return (
Select RetSeq = Row_Number() over (Order By (Select null))
,RetVal = LTrim(RTrim(B.i.value('(./text())[1]', 'varchar(max)')))
From (Select x = Cast('<x>'+ Replace(#String,#Delimiter,'</x><x>')+'</x>' as xml).query('.')) as A
Cross Apply x.nodes('x') AS B(i)
);
--Select * from [dbo].[udf-Str-Parse]('Dog,Cat,House,Car',',')
--Select * from [dbo].[udf-Str-Parse]('John Cappelletti was here',' ')
--Performance On a 5,000 random sample -8K 77.8ms, -1M 79ms (+1.16), -- 91.66ms (+13.8)