Selecting Multiple Substrings from a Field - sql

Question

I'm trying to create a SQL query that selects pieces of a record from a field. Here is a shorten example of what is in one unedited field:
<Name>Example1</Name>
<Type>String</Type>
<Nullable>False</Nullable>
<AllowBlank>False</AllowBlank>
<Prompt>Start Date (DD-MMM-YYYY)</Prompt>
<PromptUser>True</PromptUser> </Parameter>
<Parameter>
<Name>Example2</Name>
<Type>String</Type>
<Nullable>False</Nullable>
<AllowBlank>False</AllowBlank>
<Prompt>Case (Enter Case Number, % for all, OR %AL% for Alberta)</Prompt>
<PromptUser>True</PromptUser>
<DefaultValues>
<Value>%al%</Value>
</DefaultValues>
<Values>
<Value>%al%</Value>
</Values> </Parameter>
<Parameter>
A utter messy right, well I'm trying pull out all names, prompts and if it has a value then its value and put all of that into one field formated. For example the above field should look like this
Name: Example1
Prompt: Start Date (DD-MMM-YYYY)
Name: Example2
Prompt: Case (Enter Case Number, % for all, OR %AL% for Alberta)
Value: %al%
I've tried using STUFF but there can be any number Names with Prompts and values in a single field. My next thought was to use replace to replace all the <> and but that would leave me with the stuff inbetween like so
Name: Example1
String
False
False
Prompt: Start Date (DD-MMM-YYYY)
Name: Example2
String
False
False
Prompt: Case (Enter Case Number, % for all, OR %AL% for Alberta)
True
Value: %al%
%al%
Edit: Another idea that might solve the problem is if I can use REPLACE to replace the unknown length string between or along with the two known characters/strings for example replacing <Type>###</Type> where ### represents any number of characters inbetween the two known strings and . The problem is that I don't know if this is even possible or how to do it if it is.
Any suggestions are apperciated.

Answer 1

so I checked the code with management studio and discover a few errors.
declare #var nvarchar(max)
declare #tag nvarchar(max)
declare #label nvarchar(max)
declare #start int
declare #stop int
declare #len int
declare #needed int
set #var = '<Name>Example1</Name>
<Type>String</Type>
<Nullable>False</Nullable>
<AllowBlank>False</AllowBlank>
<Prompt>Start Date (DD-MMM-YYYY)</Prompt>
<PromptUser>True</PromptUser>
<Parameter> </Parameter>
<Name>Example2</Name>
<Type>String</Type>
<Nullable>False</Nullable>
<AllowBlank>False</AllowBlank>
<Prompt>Case (Enter Case Number, % for all, OR %AL% for Alberta)</Prompt>
<PromptUser>True</PromptUser>
<DefaultValues>
<Value>%al%</Value>
</DefaultValues>
<Values>
<Value>%al%</Value>
</Values>
<Parameter></Parameter>'
set #needed = 0
set #start = charindex('<',#var)
set #stop = charindex('>',#var)
set #len = #stop - #start +1
set #tag = substring(#var,#start,#len)
set #label = substring(#var,#start+1,#len-2)
set #var = replace(#var,#tag,#label + ' : ')
while(#start <> 0)
begin
set #start = charindex('<',#var)
set #stop = charindex('>',#var)
set #len = #stop - #start +1
if(#start <> 0)
begin
set #tag = substring(#var,#start,#len)
if(charindex('/',#tag) = 0)
begin
set #label = substring(#var,#start+1,#len-2)+ ' : '
if(lower(#label) <> 'name : ' and lower(#label) <> 'value : ' and lower(#label) <> 'prompt : ')
begin
set #needed = 0
set #var = replace(#var,#tag,'')
set #start = #stop - len(#tag)
set #stop = charindex('<',#var)
set #len = #stop - #start
set #tag = substring(#var,#start,#len)
set #var = replace(#var,#tag,'')
end
end
else
begin
set #label = ''
end
set #var = replace(#var,#tag,#label)
end
end
print replace(#var,'
','')
and this results in:
Name : Example1
Prompt : Start Date (DD-MMM-YYYY)
Name : Example2
Prompt : Case (Enter Case Number, % for all, OR %AL% for Alberta) Value :
%al%

Answer 2

this is what I came up with. I hope it helps. basically it looks for the tags, if it's a closing tag it removes it and if it's an open tag it is replaces by the label variant.
declare #var nvarchar(max)
declare #tag nvarchar(max)
declare #label nvarchar(max)
declare #start int
declare #stop int
declare #len int
set #var = '<Name>Example1</Name>
<Type>String</Type>
<Nullable>False</Nullable>
<AllowBlank>False</AllowBlank>
<Prompt>Start Date (DD-MMM-YYYY)</Prompt>
<PromptUser>True</PromptUser>
<Parameter> </Parameter>
<Name>Example2</Name>
<Type>String</Type>
<Nullable>False</Nullable>
<AllowBlank>False</AllowBlank>
<Prompt>Case (Enter Case Number, % for all, OR %AL% for Alberta)</Prompt>
<PromptUser>True</PromptUser>
<DefaultValues>
<Value>%al%</Value>
</DefaultValues>
<Values>
<Value>%al%</Value>
</Values>
<Parameter></Parameter>'
set #start = charindex('<',#var)
set #stop = charindex('>',#var)
set #len = #stop - #start +1
set #tag = substring(#var,#start,#len)
set #label = substring(#var,#start+1,#len-2)
set #var = replace(#var,#tag,#label + ' : ')
while(#start <> 0)
begin
set #start = charindex('<',#var)
set #stop = charindex('>',#var)
set #len = #stop - #start +1
if(#start <> 0)
begin
set #tag = substring(#var,#start,#len)
if(charindex('/',#tag) = 0)
begin
set #label = substring(#var,#start+1,#len-2)+ ' : '
end
else
begin
set #label = ''
end
set #var = replace(#var,#tag,#label)
end
end
print #var
this results in:
Name : Example1
Type : String
Nullable : False
AllowBlank : False
Prompt : Start Date (DD-MMM-YYYY)
PromptUser : True
Parameter :
Name : Example2
Type : String
Nullable : False
AllowBlank : False
Prompt : Case (Enter Case Number, % for all, OR %AL% for Alberta)
PromptUser : True
DefaultValues :
Value : %al%
Values :
Value : %al%
Parameter :

Answer 3

I changed the code so that only the name, prompt and value parts will be saved.
A little warning though I changed the code in notepad++ so it could have a bug.
the idea is that you put this code in a function and pass the #var part as a parameter.
declare #var nvarchar(max)
declare #tag nvarchar(max)
declare #label nvarchar(max)
declare #start int
declare #stop int
declare #len int
declare #needed int
set #var = '<Name>Example1</Name>
<Type>String</Type>
<Nullable>False</Nullable>
<AllowBlank>False</AllowBlank>
<Prompt>Start Date (DD-MMM-YYYY)</Prompt>
<PromptUser>True</PromptUser>
<Parameter> </Parameter>
<Name>Example2</Name>
<Type>String</Type>
<Nullable>False</Nullable>
<AllowBlank>False</AllowBlank>
<Prompt>Case (Enter Case Number, % for all, OR %AL% for Alberta)</Prompt>
<PromptUser>True</PromptUser>
<DefaultValues>
<Value>%al%</Value>
</DefaultValues>
<Values>
<Value>%al%</Value>
</Values>
<Parameter></Parameter>'
set #start = charindex('<',#var)
set #stop = charindex('>',#var)
set #len = #stop - #start +1
set #tag = substring(#var,#start,#len)
set #label = substring(#var,#start+1,#len-2)
set #var = replace(#var,#tag,#label + ' : ')
while(#start <> 0)
begin
set #start = charindex('<',#var)
set #stop = charindex('>',#var)
set #len = #stop - #start +1
if(#start <> 0)
begin
set #tag = substring(#var,#start,#len)
if(charindex('/',#tag) = 0)
begin
set #label = substring(#var,#start+1,#len-2)+ ' : '
if(lower(#label) = 'name' or lower(#label) = 'value' or lower(#label) = 'prompt')
begin
set #needed = 1
end
else
begin
set #needed = 0
end
end
else
begin
set #label = ''
end
if(#needed = 1)
begin
set #var = replace(#var,#tag,#label)
end
else
begin
set #var = replace(#var,#tag,'')
set #start = #stop
set #stop = charindex('<',#var)
set #tag = substring(#var,#start,#stop)
set #var = replace(#var,#tag,'')
end
end
end
print #var