Explode range of integers out for joining in SQL - sql

Question

I have one table that stores a range of integers in a field, sort of like a print range, (e.g. "1-2,4-7,9-11"). This field could also contain a single number.
My goal is to join this table to a second one that has discrete values instead of ranges.
So if table one contains
1-2,5
9-15
7
And table two contains
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
The result of the join would be
1-2,5 1
1-2,5 2
1-2,5 5
7 7
9-15 9
9-15 10
Working in SQL Server 2008 R2.

Answer 1

Use a string split function of your choice to split on comma. Figure out the min/max values and join using between.
SQL Fiddle
MS SQL Server 2012 Schema Setup:
create table T1(Col1 varchar(10))
create table T2(Col2 int)
insert into T1 values
('1-2,5'),
('9-15'),
('7')
insert into T2 values (1),(2),(3),(4),(5),(6),(7),(8),(9),(10)
Query 1:
select T1.Col1,
T2.Col2
from T2
inner join (
select T1.Col1,
cast(left(S.Item, charindex('-', S.Item+'-')-1) as int) MinValue,
cast(stuff(S.Item, 1, charindex('-', S.Item), '') as int) MaxValue
from T1
cross apply dbo.Split(T1.Col1, ',') as S
) as T1
on T2.Col2 between T1.MinValue and T1.MaxValue
Results:
| COL1 | COL2 |
----------------
| 1-2,5 | 1 |
| 1-2,5 | 2 |
| 1-2,5 | 5 |
| 9-15 | 9 |
| 9-15 | 10 |
| 7 | 7 |

Answer 2

Like everybody has said, this is a pain to do natively in SQL Server. If you must then I think this is the proper approach.
First determine your rules for parsing the string, then break down the process into well-defined and understood problems.
Based on your example, I think this is the process:
Separate comma separated values in the string into rows
If the data does not contain a dash, then it's finished (it's a standalone value)
If it does contain a dash, parse the left and right sides of the dash
Given the left and right sides (the range) determine all the values between them into rows
I would create a temp table to populate the parsing results into which needs two columns:
SourceRowID INT, ContainedValue INT
and another to use for intermediate processing:
SourceRowID INT, ContainedValues VARCHAR
Parse your comma-separated values into their own rows using a CTE like this Step 1 is now a well-defined and understood problem to solve:
Turning a Comma Separated string into individual rows
So your result from the source
'1-2,5'
will be:
'1-2'
'5'
From there, SELECT from that processing table where the field does not contain a dash. Step 2 is now a well-defined and understood problem to solve These are standalone numbers and can go straight into the results temp table. The results table should also get the ID reference to the original row.
Next would be to parse the values to the left and right of the dash using CHARINDEX to locate it, then the appropriate LEFT and RIGHT functions as needed. This will give you the starting and ending value.
Here is a relevant question for accomplishing this step 3 is now a well-defined and understood problem to solve:
T-SQL substring - separating first and last name
Now you have separated the starting and ending values. Use another function which can explode this range. Step 4 is now a well-defined and understood problem to solve:
SQL: create sequential list of numbers from various starting points
SELECT all N between #min and #max
What is the best way to create and populate a numbers table?
and, also, insert it into the temp table.
Now what you should have is a temp table with every value in the exploded range.
Simply JOIN that to the other table on the values now, then to your source table on the ID reference and you're there.

Answer 3

My suggestion is to add one more field and many more records to your ranges table. Specifically, the primary key would be the integer and the other field would be the range. Records would look like this:
number range
1 1-2,5
2 1-2,5
3 na
4 na
5 1-2,5
etc
Having said that, this is still rather limiting because a number can only have one range. If you want to be thorough, set up a many to many relationship between numbers and ranges.

Answer 4

As far as I can tell you best option is something like below:
Create a table value function that accepts your ranges an converts them to a collection of ints. So 1-3,5 would return:
1
2
3
5
Then use these results to join to other tables. I don't have an exact function to do this at hand, but this one seems like an excellent start.