Related
I have a column in a table that looks like this
Name
WALKER^JAMES^K^^
ANDERSON^MICHAEL^R^^
HUFF^CHRIS^^^
WALKER^JAMES^K^^
SWEARINGEN^TOMMY^L^^
SMITH^JOHN^JACCOB^^
I need to write a query that looks like this
Name
FirstName
LastName
MiddleName
WALKER^JAMES^K^^
JAMES
WALKER
K
ANDERSON^MICHAEL^R^^
MICHAEL
ANDERSON
R
HUFF^CHRIS^^^
CHRIS
HUFF
BUTLER^STEWART^M^^
STEWART
BUTLER
M
SWEARINGEN^TOMMY^L^^
TOMMY
SWEARINGEN
L
SMITH^JOHN^JACCOB^^
JOHN
SMITH
JACCOB
I need help generating the LastName column.
This is what I've tried so far
SUBSTRING
(
--SEARCH THE NAME COLUMN
Name,
--Starting after the first '^'
CHARINDEX('^', Name) + 1 ),
--Index of second ^ minus the index of the first ^
(CHARINDEX('^', PatientName, CHARINDEX('^', PatientName) +1)) - (CHARINDEX('^', PatientName))
)
This produces:
Invalid length parameter passed to the LEFT or SUBSTRING function.
I know this can work because if I change the minus sign to a plus sign it performs as expected.
It produces the right integer.
Where am I going wrong? Is there a better way to do this?
If you are using the latest SQL Server versions 2016 13.x or higher, you can maximize the use of string_split function with ordinal (position).
declare #strTable table(sqlstring varchar(max))
insert into #strTable (sqlstring) values ('WALKER^JAMES^K^^')
insert into #strTable (sqlstring) values ('ANDERSON^MICHAEL^R^^')
insert into #strTable (sqlstring) values ('HUFF^CHRIS^^^')
insert into #strTable (sqlstring) values ('SWEARINGEN^TOMMY^L^^');
with tmp as
(select value s, Row_Number() over (order by (select 0)) n from #strTable
cross apply String_Split(sqlstring, '^', 1))
select t2.s as FirstName, t1.s as LastName, t3.s as MiddleInitial from tmp t1
left join tmp t2 on t2.n-t1.n = 1
left join tmp t3 on t3.n-t1.n = 2
where t1.n = 1 or t1.n % 5 = 1
I recommend SUBSTRING() as it will perform the best. The challenge with SUBSTRING is it's hard to account to keep track of the nested CHARDINDEX() calls so it's better to break the calculation into pieces. I use CROSS APPLY to alias each "^" found and start from there to search for the next. Also allows to do NULLIF() = 0, so if it can't find the "^", it just returns a NULL instead of erroring out
Parse Delimited String using SUBSTRING() and CROSS APPLY
DROP TABLE IF EXISTS #Name
CREATE TABLE #Name (ID INT IDENTITY(1,1) PRIMARY KEY,[Name] varchar(255))
INSERT INTO #Name
VALUES ('WALKER^JAMES^K^^')
,('ANDERSON^MICHAEL^R^^')
,('HUFF^CHRIS^^^')
,('SWEARINGEN^TOMMY^L^^');
SELECT ID
,A.[Name]
,LastName = NULLIF(SUBSTRING(A.[Name],0,idx1),'')
,FirstName = NULLIF(SUBSTRING(A.[Name],idx1+1,idx2-idx1-1),'')
,MiddleInitial = NULLIF(SUBSTRING(A.[Name],idx2+1,idx3-idx2-1),'')
FROM #Name AS A
CROSS APPLY (SELECT idx1 = NULLIF(CHARINDEX('^',[Name]),0)) AS B
CROSS APPLY (SELECT idx2 = NULLIF(CHARINDEX('^',[Name],idx1+1),0)) AS C
CROSS APPLY (SELECT idx3 = NULLIF(CHARINDEX('^',[Name],idx2+1),0)) AS D
I am trying to get string between second and third instance of ",," using SQL SELECT.
Apparently functions substring and charindex are useful, and I have tried them but the problem is that I need the string between those specific ",,"s and the length of the strings between them can change.
Can't find working example anywhere.
Here is an example:
Table: test
Column: Column1
Row1: cat1,,cat2,,cat3,,cat4,,cat5
Row2: dogger1,,dogger2,,dogger3,,dogger4,,dogger5
Result: cat3dogger3
Here is my closest attempt, it works if the strings are same length every time, but they aren't:
SELECT SUBSTRING(column1,LEN(LEFT(column1,CHARINDEX(',,', column1,12)+2)),LEN(column1) - LEN(LEFT(column1,CHARINDEX(',,', column1,20)+2)) - LEN(RIGHT(column1,CHARINDEX(',,', (REVERSE(column1)))))) AS column1
FROM testi
Just repeat sub-string 3 times, each time moving onto the next ",," e.g.
select
-- Substring till the third ',,'
substring(z.col1, 1, patindex('%,,%',z.col1)-1)
from (values ('cat1,,cat2,,cat3,,cat4,,cat5'),('dogger1,,dogger2,,dogger3,,dogger4,,dogger5')) x (col1)
-- Substring from the first ',,'
cross apply (values (substring(x.col1,patindex('%,,%',x.col1)+2,len(x.col1)))) y (col1)
-- Substring from the second ',,'
cross apply (values (substring(y.col1,patindex('%,,%',y.col1)+2,len(y.col1)))) z (col1);
And just to reiterate, this is a terrible way to store data, so the best solution is to store it properly.
Here is an alternative solution using charindex. The base idea is the same as in Dale K's an answer, but instead of cutting the string, we specify the start_location for the search by using the third, optional parameter, of charindex. This way, we get the location of each separator, and could slip each value off from the main string.
declare #vtest table (column1 varchar(200))
insert into #vtest ( column1 ) values('dogger1,,dogger2,,dogger3,,dogger4,,dogger5')
insert into #vtest ( column1 ) values('cat1,,cat2,,cat3,,cat4,,cat5')
declare #separetor char(2) = ',,'
select
t.column1
, FI.FirstInstance
, SI.SecondInstance
, TI.ThirdInstance
, iif(TI.ThirdInstance is not null, substring(t.column1, SI.SecondInstance + 2, TI.ThirdInstance - SI.SecondInstance - 2), null)
from
#vtest t
cross apply (select nullif(charindex(#separetor, t.column1), 0) FirstInstance) FI
cross apply (select nullif(charindex(#separetor, t.column1, FI.FirstInstance + 2), 0) SecondInstance) SI
cross apply (select nullif(charindex(#separetor, t.column1, SI.SecondInstance + 2), 0) ThirdInstance) TI
For transparency, I saved the separator string in a variable.
By default the charindex returns 0 if the search string is not present, so I overwrite it with the value null, by using nullif
IMHO, SQL Server 2016 and its JSON support in the best option here.
SQL
-- DDL and sample data population, start
DECLARE #tbl TABLE (ID INT IDENTITY PRIMARY KEY, Tokens VARCHAR(500));
INSERT INTO #tbl VALUES
('cat1,,cat2,,cat3,,cat4,,cat5'),
('dogger1,,dogger2,,dogger3,,dogger4,,dogger5');
-- DDL and sample data population, end
WITH rs AS
(
SELECT *
, '["' + REPLACE(Tokens
, ',,', '","')
+ '"]' AS jsondata
FROM #tbl
)
SELECT rs.ID, rs.Tokens
, JSON_VALUE(jsondata, '$[2]') AS ThirdToken
FROM rs;
Output
+----+---------------------------------------------+------------+
| ID | Tokens | ThirdToken |
+----+---------------------------------------------+------------+
| 1 | cat1,,cat2,,cat3,,cat4,,cat5 | cat3 |
| 2 | dogger1,,dogger2,,dogger3,,dogger4,,dogger5 | dogger3 |
+----+---------------------------------------------+------------+
It´s the same as #"Yitzhak Khabinsky" but i think it looks clearer
WITH CTE_Data
AS(
SELECT 'cat1,,cat2,,cat3,,cat4,,cat5' AS [String]
UNION
SELECT 'dogger1,,dogger2,,dogger3,,dogger4,,dogger5' AS [String]
)
SELECT
A.[String]
,Value3 = JSON_VALUE('["'+ REPLACE(A.[String], ',,', '","') + '"]', '$[2]')
FROM CTE_Data AS A
I have a table that looks like this:
ProductId, Color
"1", "red, blue, green"
"2", null
"3", "purple, green"
And I want to expand it to this:
ProductId, Color
1, red
1, blue
1, green
2, null
3, purple
3, green
Whats the easiest way to accomplish this? Is it possible without a loop in a proc?
Take a look at this function. I've done similar tricks to split and transpose data in Oracle. Loop over the data inserting the decoded values into a temp table. The convent thing is that MS will let you do this on the fly, while Oracle requires an explicit temp table.
MS SQL Split Function
Better Split Function
Edit by author:
This worked great. Final code looked like this (after creating the split function):
select pv.productid, colortable.items as color
from product p
cross apply split(p.color, ',') as colortable
based on your tables:
create table test_table
(
ProductId int
,Color varchar(100)
)
insert into test_table values (1, 'red, blue, green')
insert into test_table values (2, null)
insert into test_table values (3, 'purple, green')
create a new table like this:
CREATE TABLE Numbers
(
Number int not null primary key
)
that has rows containing values 1 to 8000 or so.
this will return what you want:
EDIT
here is a much better query, slightly modified from the great answer from #Christopher Klein:
I added the "LTRIM()" so the spaces in the color list, would be handled properly: "red, blue, green". His solution requires no spaces "red,blue,green". Also, I prefer to use my own Number table and not use master.dbo.spt_values, this allows the removal of one derived table too.
SELECT
ProductId, LEFT(PartialColor, CHARINDEX(',', PartialColor + ',')-1) as SplitColor
FROM (SELECT
t.ProductId, LTRIM(SUBSTRING(t.Color, n.Number, 200)) AS PartialColor
FROM test_table t
LEFT OUTER JOIN Numbers n ON n.Number<=LEN(t.Color) AND SUBSTRING(',' + t.Color, n.Number, 1) = ','
) t
EDIT END
SELECT
ProductId, Color --,number
FROM (SELECT
ProductId
,CASE
WHEN LEN(List2)>0 THEN LTRIM(RTRIM(SUBSTRING(List2, number+1, CHARINDEX(',', List2, number+1)-number - 1)))
ELSE NULL
END AS Color
,Number
FROM (
SELECT ProductId,',' + Color + ',' AS List2
FROM test_table
) AS dt
LEFT OUTER JOIN Numbers n ON (n.Number < LEN(dt.List2)) OR (n.Number=1 AND dt.List2 IS NULL)
WHERE SUBSTRING(List2, number, 1) = ',' OR List2 IS NULL
) dt2
ORDER BY ProductId, Number, Color
here is my result set:
ProductId Color
----------- --------------
1 red
1 blue
1 green
2 NULL
3 purple
3 green
(6 row(s) affected)
which is the same order you want...
You can try this out, doesnt require any additional functions:
declare #t table (col1 varchar(10), col2 varchar(200))
insert #t
select '1', 'red,blue,green'
union all select '2', NULL
union all select '3', 'green,purple'
select col1, left(d, charindex(',', d + ',')-1) as e from (
select *, substring(col2, number, 200) as d from #t col1 left join
(select distinct number from master.dbo.spt_values where number between 1 and 200) col2
on substring(',' + col2, number, 1) = ',') t
I arrived this question 10 years after the post.
SQL server 2016 added STRING_SPLIT function.
By using that, this can be written as below.
declare #product table
(
ProductId int,
Color varchar(max)
);
insert into #product values (1, 'red, blue, green');
insert into #product values (2, null);
insert into #product values (3, 'purple, green');
select
p.ProductId as ProductId,
ltrim(split_table.value) as Color
from #product p
outer apply string_split(p.Color, ',') as split_table;
Fix your database if at all possible. Comma delimited lists in database cells indicate a flawed schema 99% of the time or more.
I would create a CLR table-defined function for this:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms254508(VS.80).aspx
The reason for this is that CLR code is going to be much better at parsing apart the strings (computational work) and can pass that information back as a set, which is what SQL Server is really good at (set management).
The CLR function would return a series of records based on the parsed values (and the input id value).
You would then use a CROSS APPLY on each element in your table.
Just convert your columns into xml and query it. Here's an example.
select
a.value('.', 'varchar(42)') c
from (select cast('<r><a>' + replace(#CSV, ',', '</a><a>') + '</a></r>' as xml) x) t1
cross apply x.nodes('//r/a') t2(a)
Why not use dynamic SQL for this purpose, something like this(adapt to your needs):
DECLARE #dynSQL VARCHAR(max)
SET #dynSQL = 'insert into DestinationTable(field) values'
select #dynSQL = #dynSQL + '('+ REPLACE(Color,',',''',''') + '),' from Table
SET #dynSql = LEFT(#dynSql,LEN(#dynSql) -1) -- delete the last comma
exec #dynSql
One advantage is that you can use it on any SQL Server version
I got a searchbox, the sql statment is like:
SELECT ..... WHERE ... LIKE '%A%'
but when user entered "A B" (space between A and B)
I want to select all records which content contains both A and B.
But I can not write:
.... LIKE '%A%B%'
because it won't match string that B occurs first like: "ilikeBnotA"
It should be
...LIKE '%A%' AND ...LIKE '%B%'
But the user may input more than one spance, like "A B C ...", so i need to write a loop, contacting every keyword into:
AND ...LIKE '%keyword%'
I don't think it's a good idea, i doubt it may cause performance issues when searching large string (like a blog post content).
Is there any good solution to this problem? Dow do search engines do that?
First you need a split function:
CREATE function [dbo].[f_split]
(
#param nvarchar(max),
#delimiter char(1)
)
returns #t table (val nvarchar(max), seq int)
as
begin
set #param += #delimiter
;with a as
(
select cast(1 as bigint) f, charindex(#delimiter, #param) t, 1 seq
union all
select t + 1, charindex(#delimiter, #param, t + 1), seq + 1
from a
where charindex(#delimiter, #param, t + 1) > 0
)
insert #t
select substring(#param, f, t - f), seq from a
option (maxrecursion 0)
return
end
Then you can search like this:
-- declaring a tablevariable to represent your table
declare #yourtable table(id int identity(1,1), searchcol varchar(50))
insert #yourtable values('abc')
insert #yourtable values('za')
insert #yourtable values('az')
insert #yourtable values('zz')
declare #input varchar(50)
set #input = 'a b c'
-- show if one or more match exists
select * from #yourtable a
where exists (select 1 from f_split(#input, ' ') b
where a.searchcol like '%'+ b.val + '%')
--show only if all matches exists
select * from #yourtable a
where not exists (select 1 from clausens_base.dbo.f_split(#input, ' ') b
where not a.searchcol like '%'+ b.val + '%')
You can use regular expressions with SQL and write a regex to match all given strings:
(?=.*one)(?=.*two)(?=.*three)
Below written code should do in case of one space char is there and your search string is in a variable called #a
...LIKE LEFT(#a,CHARINDEX(' ',#a)) AND ... LIKE RIGHT(#a,CHARINDEX(' ',#a))
Create another column in your table, say keywords, and when inserting data also create the keyword of your data by removing whitespace characters and insert to this column.
When searching search the keyword in this column.
create function createKeyword(#data nvarchar(256))
returns nvarchar(256)
as
begin
-- remove whitespace characters
return #kword
end
And when searching use
t.keywords like '%' + dbo.createKeyword(#data) + '%'
I have a table that looks like this:
ProductId, Color
"1", "red, blue, green"
"2", null
"3", "purple, green"
And I want to expand it to this:
ProductId, Color
1, red
1, blue
1, green
2, null
3, purple
3, green
Whats the easiest way to accomplish this? Is it possible without a loop in a proc?
Take a look at this function. I've done similar tricks to split and transpose data in Oracle. Loop over the data inserting the decoded values into a temp table. The convent thing is that MS will let you do this on the fly, while Oracle requires an explicit temp table.
MS SQL Split Function
Better Split Function
Edit by author:
This worked great. Final code looked like this (after creating the split function):
select pv.productid, colortable.items as color
from product p
cross apply split(p.color, ',') as colortable
based on your tables:
create table test_table
(
ProductId int
,Color varchar(100)
)
insert into test_table values (1, 'red, blue, green')
insert into test_table values (2, null)
insert into test_table values (3, 'purple, green')
create a new table like this:
CREATE TABLE Numbers
(
Number int not null primary key
)
that has rows containing values 1 to 8000 or so.
this will return what you want:
EDIT
here is a much better query, slightly modified from the great answer from #Christopher Klein:
I added the "LTRIM()" so the spaces in the color list, would be handled properly: "red, blue, green". His solution requires no spaces "red,blue,green". Also, I prefer to use my own Number table and not use master.dbo.spt_values, this allows the removal of one derived table too.
SELECT
ProductId, LEFT(PartialColor, CHARINDEX(',', PartialColor + ',')-1) as SplitColor
FROM (SELECT
t.ProductId, LTRIM(SUBSTRING(t.Color, n.Number, 200)) AS PartialColor
FROM test_table t
LEFT OUTER JOIN Numbers n ON n.Number<=LEN(t.Color) AND SUBSTRING(',' + t.Color, n.Number, 1) = ','
) t
EDIT END
SELECT
ProductId, Color --,number
FROM (SELECT
ProductId
,CASE
WHEN LEN(List2)>0 THEN LTRIM(RTRIM(SUBSTRING(List2, number+1, CHARINDEX(',', List2, number+1)-number - 1)))
ELSE NULL
END AS Color
,Number
FROM (
SELECT ProductId,',' + Color + ',' AS List2
FROM test_table
) AS dt
LEFT OUTER JOIN Numbers n ON (n.Number < LEN(dt.List2)) OR (n.Number=1 AND dt.List2 IS NULL)
WHERE SUBSTRING(List2, number, 1) = ',' OR List2 IS NULL
) dt2
ORDER BY ProductId, Number, Color
here is my result set:
ProductId Color
----------- --------------
1 red
1 blue
1 green
2 NULL
3 purple
3 green
(6 row(s) affected)
which is the same order you want...
You can try this out, doesnt require any additional functions:
declare #t table (col1 varchar(10), col2 varchar(200))
insert #t
select '1', 'red,blue,green'
union all select '2', NULL
union all select '3', 'green,purple'
select col1, left(d, charindex(',', d + ',')-1) as e from (
select *, substring(col2, number, 200) as d from #t col1 left join
(select distinct number from master.dbo.spt_values where number between 1 and 200) col2
on substring(',' + col2, number, 1) = ',') t
I arrived this question 10 years after the post.
SQL server 2016 added STRING_SPLIT function.
By using that, this can be written as below.
declare #product table
(
ProductId int,
Color varchar(max)
);
insert into #product values (1, 'red, blue, green');
insert into #product values (2, null);
insert into #product values (3, 'purple, green');
select
p.ProductId as ProductId,
ltrim(split_table.value) as Color
from #product p
outer apply string_split(p.Color, ',') as split_table;
Fix your database if at all possible. Comma delimited lists in database cells indicate a flawed schema 99% of the time or more.
I would create a CLR table-defined function for this:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms254508(VS.80).aspx
The reason for this is that CLR code is going to be much better at parsing apart the strings (computational work) and can pass that information back as a set, which is what SQL Server is really good at (set management).
The CLR function would return a series of records based on the parsed values (and the input id value).
You would then use a CROSS APPLY on each element in your table.
Just convert your columns into xml and query it. Here's an example.
select
a.value('.', 'varchar(42)') c
from (select cast('<r><a>' + replace(#CSV, ',', '</a><a>') + '</a></r>' as xml) x) t1
cross apply x.nodes('//r/a') t2(a)
Why not use dynamic SQL for this purpose, something like this(adapt to your needs):
DECLARE #dynSQL VARCHAR(max)
SET #dynSQL = 'insert into DestinationTable(field) values'
select #dynSQL = #dynSQL + '('+ REPLACE(Color,',',''',''') + '),' from Table
SET #dynSql = LEFT(#dynSql,LEN(#dynSql) -1) -- delete the last comma
exec #dynSql
One advantage is that you can use it on any SQL Server version