Reverse Concat - Split function - sql

Question

I have a table and it has a value column that lists data as:
Row 1: '00','01','02','03'
Row 2: '03','02','09','08'
I have a couple of split functions
FUNCTION [dbo].[udf_Split](#String varchar(MAX), #Delimiter char(1))
returns #temptable TABLE (Item varchar(MAX))
as
begin
declare #idx int
declare #slice varchar(8000)
select #idx = 1
if len(#String)<1 or #String is null return
while #idx<>0
begin
set #idx = charindex(#Delimiter,#String)
if #idx!=0
set #slice = left(#String,#idx - 1)
else
set #slice = #String
if(len(#slice)>0)
insert into #temptable(Item) values(#slice)
set #String = right(#String,len(#String) - #idx)
if len(#String) = 0 break
end return end;
I'm trying to create a view of the table, with that column and then I'd like my view results to be a list of rows that have each value broken to its own row (and distinct) So would look like: (the tics can stay or go, don't care about them right now)
Row 1: 00
Row 2: 01
Row 3: 02
Row 4: 03
My view is pretty much a:
SELECT DISTINCT VALUE FROM TABLE
cross apply dbo.split(Value, ',') as Item
But it's not working. Can someone lend me some direction on how I should work this?

Answer 1

This is because you're SELECTing the field VALUE instead of Item.Item. You should do this:
SELECT DISTINCT x.Item
FROM TABLE
CROSS APPLY dbo.split(Value, ',') AS x
Additionally, your dbo.split function is not optimal. There are number of ways to split a string in a set-based fashion, instead of RBAR. Here is one way using XML:
CREATE FUNCTION dbo.SplitStrings_XML
(
#List NVARCHAR(MAX),
#Delimiter NVARCHAR(255)
)
RETURNS TABLE
WITH SCHEMABINDING
AS
RETURN
(
SELECT Item = y.i.value('(./text())[1]', 'nvarchar(4000)')
FROM
(
SELECT x = CONVERT(XML, '<i>'
+ REPLACE(#List, #Delimiter, '</i><i>')
+ '</i>').query('.')
) AS a CROSS APPLY x.nodes('i') AS y(i)
);
GO
Sample usage:
;WITH CteData(Value) AS(
SELECT '''00'',''01'',''02'',''03''' UNION ALL
SELECT '''03'',''02'',''09'',''08'''
)
SELECT DISTINCT x.Item
FROM CteData d
CROSS APPLY dbo.SplitStrings_XML(d.Value, ',') x
Result:
Item
--------
'00'
'01'
'02'
'03'
'08'
'09'
For other string splitter, you can read this article by Aaron Bertrand.