Hot to convert a variable with value '1,2,3' to a table (every number as a record) - sql

Question

Working on SQL (2005 and 2008)
the variable with value '1,2,3' would be call #cedis and this could to have N number for example
set #cedis='1' or set #cedis='1,2,3,4,5,6,7' or set #cedis='125,98,91'
so important, its this must to be a select only, a loop could not to be use, only a select!
this must to return a (result as ) table with values for example
set #cedis='1,2,3,4' this must to return a result
number 1 2 3 4
declare #cedis varchar(max)
set #cedis='1,58,123,8'
;with datos as
(
my select with is going to return me the table
)
select * from datos
result set is
number
1
58
123
8

Answer 1

If am not wrong this is what you need
DECLARE #cedis VARCHAR(500)='1,2,3,4'
SELECT Split.a.value('.', 'VARCHAR(100)') Numbers
FROM (SELECT Cast ('<M>' + Replace(#cedis, ',', '</M><M>') + '</M>' AS XML) AS Numbers) AS A
CROSS APPLY Numbers.nodes ('/M') AS Split(a)
Result:
Numbers
-------
1
2
3
4

Answer 2

A table valued function would do it.
CREATE FUNCTION [dbo].[fn_Split](#text VARCHAR(MAX), #delimiter VARCHAR(5) = ',')
RETURNS #Strings TABLE
(
position int IDENTITY PRIMARY KEY,
value VARCHAR(8000)
)
AS
BEGIN
DECLARE #index int
SET #index = -1
WHILE (LEN(#text) > 0)
BEGIN
SET #index = CHARINDEX(#delimiter , #text)
IF (#index = 0) AND (LEN(#text) > 0)
BEGIN
INSERT INTO #Strings VALUES (#text)
BREAK
END
IF (#index > 1)
BEGIN
INSERT INTO #Strings VALUES (LEFT(#text, #index - 1))
END
SET #text = RIGHT(#text, (LEN(#text) - (#index+LEN(#delimiter)-1)))
END
RETURN
END
You can call it as follows:
SELECT *
FROM dbo.fn_Split(#cedis,',')

Answer 3

Here is a more generic solution that breaks any given string into a table based on any given separator:
http://rextester.com/VSRDLS48817
Not an original idea, but I've found it very useful.
create function [dbo].[SplitString]
(
#str nvarchar(255),
#separator char(1)
)
returns table
AS
return (
with tokens(p, a, b) AS (
select
cast(1 as int),
cast(1 as int),
charindex(#separator, #str)
union all
select
p + 1,
b + 1,
charindex(#separator, #str, b + 1)
from tokens
where b > 0
)
select
p-1 ItemIndex,
substring(
#str,
a,
case when b > 0 then b-a ELSE LEN(#str) end)
AS Item
from tokens
);

Answer 4

This is another one approach to get required output result
DECLARE #cedis VARCHAR(MAX) ,
#delimeter VARCHAR(10)
SET #cedis = '1,58,123,8,14144,15,155231,15,3647,2347,45,76,68,2354,577,5'
SET #delimeter = ','
SET #cedis = #cedis + #delimeter;
WITH datos
AS ( SELECT n = 1
UNION ALL
SELECT n + 1
FROM datos
WHERE n <= LEN(#cedis)
),
cte
AS ( SELECT T.N ,
ROW_NUMBER() OVER ( ORDER BY T.N ) AS RN
FROM datos AS T
WHERE SUBSTRING(#cedis, T.N, LEN(#delimeter)) = #delimeter
AND LEN(#cedis) >= T.N
)
SELECT SUBSTRING(#cedis, COALESCE(R.N + LEN(#delimeter), 1),
L.N - COALESCE(R.N + LEN(#delimeter), 1)) AS part ,
L.RN AS ID
FROM cte AS L
LEFT JOIN cte AS R ON L.RN = R.RN + 1
OPTION ( MAXRECURSION 1000 )