Return Distinct Rows That Contain The Same Value/Character In SQL - sql

Question

I have a bit of a tricky situation. I have a column that contains a pipe delimited set of numbers in numerous rows in a table. For example:
Courses
-------------------
1|2
1|2|3
1|2|8
10
11
11|12
What I want to achieve is to return rows where the number only appears once in my output.
Ideally, I want to try and carry this out using SQL rather than having to carry out checks at a web application level. Carrying out a DISTINCT does not achieve what I want.
The desired output would be:
Courses
-------------------
1
2
3
8
10
11
12
I would appreciated if anyone can guide me in the right direction.
Thanks.

Answer 1

Please try:
declare #tbl as table(Courses nvarchar(max))
insert into #tbl values
('1|2'),
('1|2|3'),
('1|2|8'),
('10'),
('11'),
('11|12')
select * from #tbl
SELECT
DISTINCT CAST(Split.a.value('.', 'VARCHAR(100)') AS INT) AS CVS
FROM
(
SELECT CAST ('<M>' + REPLACE(Courses, '|', '</M><M>') + '</M>' AS XML) AS CVS
FROM #tbl
) AS A CROSS APPLY CVS.nodes ('/M') AS Split(a)
ORDER BY 1

Answer 2

Try this one -
SET NOCOUNT ON;
DECLARE #temp TABLE
(
string VARCHAR(500)
)
DECLARE #Separator CHAR(1)
SELECT #Separator = '|'
INSERT INTO #temp (string)
VALUES
('1|2'),
('1|2|3'),
('1|2|8'),
('10'),
('11'),
('11|12')
-- 1. XML
SELECT p.value('(./s)[1]', 'VARCHAR(500)')
FROM (
SELECT field = CAST('<r><s>' + REPLACE(t.string, #Separator, '</s></r><r><s>') + '</s></r>' AS XML)
FROM #temp t
) d
CROSS APPLY field.nodes('/r') t(p)
-- 2. CTE
;WITH a AS
(
SELECT
start_pos = 1
, end_pos = CHARINDEX(#Separator, t.string)
, t.string
FROM #temp t
UNION ALL
SELECT
end_pos + 1
, CHARINDEX(#Separator, string, end_pos + 1)
, string
FROM a
WHERE end_pos > 0
)
SELECT d.name
FROM (
SELECT
name = SUBSTRING(
string
, start_pos
, ABS(end_pos - start_pos)
)
FROM a
) d
WHERE d.name != ''

Answer 3

Try this :
create table course (courses varchar(100))
insert into course values('1|2')
insert into course values('1|2|3')
insert into course values('1|2|8')
insert into course values('10')
insert into course values('11')
insert into course values('11|12')
Declare #col varchar(200)
SELECT
#col=(
SELECT DISTINCT c.courses + '|'
FROM course c
FOR XML PATH('')
);
select * from course
;with demo as(
select cast(substring(#col,1,charindex('|',#col,1)-1) AS INT) cou,charindex('|',#col,1) pos
union all
select cast(substring(#col,pos+1,charindex('|',#col,pos+1)-pos-1)AS INT) cou,charindex('|',#col,pos+1) pos
from demo where pos<LEN(#col))
select distinct cou from demo

Answer 4

Could not manage without recursion :( Something like this could do the trich?
WITH splitNum(num, r)
AS
(
SELECT
SUBSTRING(<field>,1, CHARINDEX('|', <field>)-1) num,
SUBSTRING(<field>,CHARINDEX('|', <field>)+1, len(<field>)) r
FROM <yourtable> as a
UNION ALL
SELECT
SUBSTRING(r,1, CHARINDEX('|', r)-1) num,
SUBSTRING(r,CHARINDEX('|', r)+1, len(r)) r
FROM <yourtable> b
WHERE CHARINDEX('|', r) > 0
inner join splitNum as c on <whatevertheprimarykeyis>
)
SELECT distinct num FROM splitNum
Didn't make it run, but it should do the trick, just replace the and with the correct info

Answer 5

One way would be to use a recursive CTE:
with cte as
(select cast(case charindex('|',courses) when 0 then courses
else left(courses,charindex('|',courses)-1) end as int) course,
case charindex('|',courses) when 0 then ''
else right(courses,len(courses)-charindex('|',courses)) end courses
from courses
union all
select cast(case charindex('|',courses) when 0 then courses
else left(courses,charindex('|',courses)-1) end as int) course,
case charindex('|',courses) when 0 then ''
else right(courses,len(courses)-charindex('|',courses)) end courses
from cte
where len(courses)>0)
select distinct course from cte
SQLFiddle here.