SQL Query Substring Query - sql

Question

I have a database column in a SQL Server 2008 database that contains VARCHAR data composed of four elements separated by an underscore; for example:
01_1234_ABC_TESTFOO
02_2234_YES_FOO
03_77653234_NO_BAR
04_10922234_BLUE_TESTBAR
05_8372_SKY_FOOBAR
I need a query to return the first three elements for each row as separate columns. I have managed to separate out the first two elements with the following code:
SELECT DISTINCT SUBSTRING(BarType, 1, CHARINDEX('_', BarType) - 1) as element1,
SUBSTRING(BarType,CHARINDEX('_',BarType)+1,
CHARINDEX('_', SUBSTRING(BarType,CHARINDEX('_',BarType)+1,LEN(BarType)))-1) as element2
FROM dbo.TestDataFoo
This returns:
element1 element2
01 1234
02 2234
03 77653234
04 10922234
05 8372
Could someone help me to get the third element of the data please? I'd also be interested to learn of any alternate methods for dealing with this.
See below for code to generate test data.
CREATE TABLE TestDataFoo (
id int PRIMARY KEY IDENTITY,
DateFoo datetime NOT NULL,
BarType varchar(50) NOT NULL)
INSERT INTO TestDataFoo (DateFoo, BarType)
VALUES(GetDate(), '01_1234_ABC_TESTFOO')
INSERT INTO TestDataFoo (DateFoo, BarType)
VALUES(GetDate(), '02_2234_YES_FOO')
INSERT INTO TestDataFoo (DateFoo, BarType)
VALUES(GetDate(), '03_77653234_NO_BAR')
INSERT INTO TestDataFoo (DateFoo, BarType)
VALUES(GetDate(), '04_10922234_BLUE_TESTBAR')
INSERT INTO TestDataFoo (DateFoo, BarType)
VALUES(GetDate(), '05_8372_SKY_FOOBAR')
Thanks
Nimi
Edit: Ideally, I'd like to achieve this without using a function but any solutions welcome!

Answer 1

;with cte as
(
select cast('<r><i>'+replace(BarType,'_','</i><i>')+'</i></r>' as xml) as xmlcol
from TestDataFoo
)
select
r.value('i[1]', 'varchar(50)') as element1,
r.value('i[2]', 'varchar(50)') as element2,
r.value('i[3]', 'varchar(50)') as element3
from cte
cross apply xmlcol.nodes('r') r(r)

Answer 2

Here's a handy function that I think would do the trick.
create function [dbo].[fn_split]
(
#String nvarchar (4000)
,#Delimiter nvarchar (10)= ','
)
returns #ValueTable table ([Value] nvarchar(4000))
as
/******************************************************************************
** name: fn_split
** desc: splits a delimited list into a table
** select * from dbo.fn_split('01_1234_ABC_TESTFOO', '_')
*******************************************************************************/
begin
declare #NextString nvarchar(4000)
declare #Pos int
declare #NextPos int
declare #CommaCheck nvarchar(1)
--Initialize
set #NextString = ''
set #CommaCheck = right(#String,1)
--Check for trailing Comma, if not exists, INSERT
--if (#CommaCheck <> #Delimiter )
set #String = #String + #Delimiter
--Get position of first Comma
set #Pos = charindex(#Delimiter,#String)
set #NextPos = 1
--Loop while there is still a comma in the String of levels
while (#pos <> 0)
begin
set #NextString = substring(#String,1,#Pos - 1)
insert into #ValueTable ( [Value]) Values (#NextString)
set #String = substring(#String,#pos +1,len(#String))
set #NextPos = #Pos
set #pos = charindex(#Delimiter,#String)
end
return
end
GO

Answer 3

Just use the old PARSENAME trick:
SQL
SELECT
PARSENAME(REPLACE(MEGASTRING,'_','.'),4) AS COL1,
PARSENAME(REPLACE(MEGASTRING,'_','.'),3) AS COL2,
PARSENAME(REPLACE(MEGASTRING,'_','.'),2) AS COL3,
PARSENAME(REPLACE(MEGASTRING,'_','.'),1) AS COL4
FROM (
SELECT '01_1234_ABC_TESTFOO' AS MEGASTRING
UNION ALL SELECT '02_2234_YES_FOO' AS MEGASTRING
UNION ALL SELECT '03_77653234_NO_BAR' AS MEGASTRING
UNION ALL SELECT '04_10922234_BLUE_TESTBAR' AS MEGASTRING
UNION ALL SELECT '05_8372_SKY_FOOBAR' AS MEGASTRING
) data
Results
COL1 COL2 COL3 COL4
01 1234 ABC TESTFOO
02 2234 YES FOO
03 77653234 NO BAR
04 10922234 BLUE TESTBAR
05 8372 SKY FOOBAR