How to sort the words of a single cell in an SQL table? - sql

Question

For example:
Pillars 101 in an apartment
Zuzu Durga International Hotel
Wyndham Garden Fresh Meadows
Need to sort the above as,
101 an apartment in Pillars
Durga Hotel International Zuzu
Fresh Garden Meadows Wyndham

Answer 1

Try this:
DECLARE #tbl TABLE(YourString VARCHAR(100));
INSERT INTO #tbl VALUES
('Pillars 101 in an apartment')
,('Zuzu Durga International Hotel')
,('Wyndham Garden Fresh Meadows');
SELECT CAST('<x>' + REPLACE((SELECT YourString AS [*] FOR XML PATH('')),' ','</x><x>') + '</x>' AS XML).query
('
for $x in /x
order by $x
return
concat($x/text()[1], " ")
').value('.','varchar(max)')
FROM #tbl;
The code will frist transfer your text in an XML like <x>Pillars</x><x>101</x> ....
Then a FLWOR XQuery is used to return the text parts sorted.
The last call to .value() will return the sorted fragments as text again.
The result
101 Pillars an apartment in
Durga Hotel International Zuzu
Fresh Garden Meadows Wyndham
Final statement
This code is kind of an exercise. Your design is really bad and should be changed...

Answer 2

So there's nothing that you can do natively. If you want to sort the values just as a return value, i.e. not update the database itself, you can transform the results with either a stored procedure or perhaps a view.
So let's construct an answer.
Let's just assume you want to do it visually, for a single row. If you have SQL 2016 you can use STRING_SPLIT but SQL Fiddle doesn't, so I used a common UDF fnSplitString
http://sqlfiddle.com/#!6/7194d/2
SELECT value
FROM fnSplitString('Pillars 101 in an apartment', ' ')
WHERE RTRIM(value) <> '';
That gives me each word, split out. What about ordering it?
SELECT value
FROM fnSplitString('Pillars 101 in an apartment', ' ')
WHERE RTRIM(value) <> ''
ORDER BY value;
And if I want to do it for each row in the DB table I have? http://sqlfiddle.com/#!6/7194d/8
SELECT split.value
FROM [Data] d
CROSS APPLY dbo.fnSplitString(IsNull(d.Value,''), ' ') AS split
WHERE RTRIM(split.value) <> ''
ORDER BY value;
That's sort of helpful, except now all my words are jumbled. Let's go back to our original query and identify each row. Each row probably has an Identity column on it. If so, you've got your grouping there. If not, you can use ROW_NUMBER, such as:
SELECT
ROW_NUMBER() OVER(ORDER BY d.Value) AS [Identity] -- here, use identity instead of row_number
, d.Value
FROM [Data] d
If we then use this query as a subquery in our select, we get:
http://sqlfiddle.com/#!6/7194d/21
SELECT d.[Identity], split.value
FROM
(
SELECT
ROW_NUMBER() OVER(ORDER BY d.Value) AS [Identity] -- here, use identity instead of row_number
, d.Value
FROM [Data] d
) d
CROSS APPLY dbo.fnSplitString(IsNull(d.Value,''), ' ') AS split
WHERE RTRIM(split.value) <> ''
ORDER BY d.[Identity], value;
This query now sorts all rows within each identity. But now you need to reconstruct those individual words back into a single string, right? For that, you can use STUFF. In my example I use a CTE because of SQL Fiddle limitations but you could use a temp table, too.
WITH tempData AS (
SELECT d.[Identity], split.value
FROM
(
SELECT
ROW_NUMBER() OVER(ORDER BY d.Value) AS [Identity] -- here, use identity instead of row_number
, d.Value
FROM [Data] d
) d
CROSS APPLY dbo.fnSplitString(IsNull(d.Value,''), ' ') AS split
WHERE RTRIM(split.value) <> ''
)
SELECT grp.[Identity]
, STUFF((SELECT N' ' + [Value] FROM tempData WHERE [Identity] = grp.[Identity] ORDER BY Value FOR XML PATH(N''))
, 1, 1, N'')
FROM (SELECT DISTINCT [Identity] FROM tempData) AS grp
Here's the end result fiddle: http://sqlfiddle.com/#!6/7194d/27
As expressed in comments already, this is not a common case for SQL. It's an unnecessary burden on the server. I would recommend pulling data out of SQL and sorting it through your programming language of choice; or making sure it's sorted as you insert it into the DB. I went through the exercise because I had a few minutes to kill :)

Answer 3

Already +1 on Shnugo's solution. I actually watch for his posts.
Just another option use a parse UDF in concert with a Cross Apply.
Example
Select B.*
From YourTable A
Cross Apply ( Select Sorted=Stuff((Select ' ' +RetVal From [dbo].[tvf-Str-Parse](A.SomeCol,' ') Order By RetVal For XML Path ('')),1,1,'') )B
Returns
Sorted
101 an apartment in Pillars
Durga Hotel International Zuzu
Fresh Garden Meadows Wyndham
The UDF if Interested
CREATE FUNCTION [dbo].[tvf-Str-Parse] (#String varchar(max),#Delimiter varchar(10))
Returns Table
As
Return (
Select RetSeq = Row_Number() over (Order By (Select null))
,RetVal = LTrim(RTrim(B.i.value('(./text())[1]', 'varchar(max)')))
From (Select x = Cast('<x>' + replace((Select replace(#String,#Delimiter,'§§Split§§') as [*] For XML Path('')),'§§Split§§','</x><x>')+'</x>' as xml).query('.')) as A
Cross Apply x.nodes('x') AS B(i)
);
--Thanks Shnugo for making this XML safe
--Select * from [dbo].[tvf-Str-Parse]('Dog,Cat,House,Car',',')