How do I split a string so I can access item x?

Question

Using SQL Server, how do I split a string so I can access item x?

Take a string "Hello John Smith". How can I split the string by space and access the item at index 1 which should return "John"?

Answer 1

If your database has compatibility level of 130 or higher then you can use the STRING_SPLIT function along with OFFSET FETCH clauses to get the specific item by index.

To get the item at index N (zero based), you can use the following code

SELECT value
FROM STRING_SPLIT('Hello John Smith',' ')
ORDER BY (SELECT NULL)
OFFSET N ROWS
FETCH NEXT 1 ROWS ONLY

To check the compatibility level of your database, execute this code:

SELECT compatibility_level  
FROM sys.databases WHERE name = 'YourDBName';

Answer 2

SIMPLE SOLUTION FOR PARSING FIRST AND LAST NAME

DECLARE @Name varchar(10) = 'John Smith'

-- Get First Name
SELECT SUBSTRING(@Name, 0, (SELECT CHARINDEX(' ', @Name)))

-- Get Last Name
SELECT SUBSTRING(@Name, (SELECT CHARINDEX(' ', @Name)) + 1, LEN(@Name))

In my case (and in many others it seems...), I have a list of first and last names separated by a single space. This can be used directly inside a select statement to parse first and last name.

-- i.e. Get First and Last Name from a table of Full Names
SELECT SUBSTRING(FullName, 0, (SELECT CHARINDEX(' ', FullName))) as FirstName,
SUBSTRING(FullName, (SELECT CHARINDEX(' ', FullName)) + 1, LEN(FullName)) as LastName,
From FullNameTable

Answer 3

Here is a UDF which will do it. It will return a table of the delimited values, haven't tried all scenarios on it but your example works fine.

CREATE FUNCTION SplitString 
(
    -- Add the parameters for the function here
    @myString varchar(500),
    @deliminator varchar(10)
)
RETURNS 
@ReturnTable TABLE 
(
    -- Add the column definitions for the TABLE variable here
    [id] [int] IDENTITY(1,1) NOT NULL,
    [part] [varchar](50) NULL
)
AS
BEGIN
        Declare @iSpaces int
        Declare @part varchar(50)

        --initialize spaces
        Select @iSpaces = charindex(@deliminator,@myString,0)
        While @iSpaces > 0

        Begin
            Select @part = substring(@myString,0,charindex(@deliminator,@myString,0))

            Insert Into @ReturnTable(part)
            Select @part

    Select @myString = substring(@mystring,charindex(@deliminator,@myString,0)+ len(@deliminator),len(@myString) - charindex(' ',@myString,0))


            Select @iSpaces = charindex(@deliminator,@myString,0)
        end

        If len(@myString) > 0
            Insert Into @ReturnTable
            Select @myString

    RETURN 
END
GO

You would call it like this:

Select * From SplitString('Hello John Smith',' ')

Edit: Updated solution to handle delimters with a len>1 as in :

select * From SplitString('Hello**John**Smith','**')

Answer 4

Try this:

CREATE function [SplitWordList]
(
 @list varchar(8000)
)
returns @t table 
(
 Word varchar(50) not null,
 Position int identity(1,1) not null
)
as begin
  declare 
    @pos int,
    @lpos int,
    @item varchar(100),
    @ignore varchar(100),
    @dl int,
    @a1 int,
    @a2 int,
    @z1 int,
    @z2 int,
    @n1 int,
    @n2 int,
    @c varchar(1),
    @a smallint
  select 
    @a1 = ascii('a'),
    @a2 = ascii('A'),
    @z1 = ascii('z'),
    @z2 = ascii('Z'),
    @n1 = ascii('0'),
    @n2 = ascii('9')
  set @ignore = '''"'
  set @pos = 1
  set @dl = datalength(@list)
  set @lpos = 1
  set @item = ''
  while (@pos <= @dl) begin
    set @c = substring(@list, @pos, 1)
    if (@ignore not like '%' + @c + '%') begin
      set @a = ascii(@c)
      if ((@a >= @a1) and (@a <= @z1))  
        or ((@a >= @a2) and (@a <= @z2))
        or ((@a >= @n1) and (@a <= @n2))
      begin
        set @item = @item + @c
      end else if (@item > '') begin
        insert into @t values (@item)
        set @item = ''
      end
    end 
    set @pos = @pos + 1
  end
  if (@item > '') begin
    insert into @t values (@item)
  end
  return
end

Test it like this:

select * from SplitWordList('Hello John Smith')

Answer 5

I know it's an old Question, but i think some one can benefit from my solution.

select 
SUBSTRING(column_name,1,CHARINDEX(' ',column_name,1)-1)
,SUBSTRING(SUBSTRING(column_name,CHARINDEX(' ',column_name,1)+1,LEN(column_name))
    ,1
    ,CHARINDEX(' ',SUBSTRING(column_name,CHARINDEX(' ',column_name,1)+1,LEN(column_name)),1)-1)
,SUBSTRING(SUBSTRING(column_name,CHARINDEX(' ',column_name,1)+1,LEN(column_name))
    ,CHARINDEX(' ',SUBSTRING(column_name,CHARINDEX(' ',column_name,1)+1,LEN(column_name)),1)+1
    ,LEN(column_name))
from table_name

SQL FIDDLE

Advantages:

• It separates all the 3 sub-strings deliminator by ' '.
• One must not use while loop, as it decreases the performance.
• No need to Pivot as all the resultant sub-string will be displayed in one Row

Limitations:

• One must know the total no. of spaces (sub-string).

Note: the solution can give sub-string up to to N.

To overcame the limitation we can use the following ref.

But again the above solution can't be use in a table (Actaully i wasn't able to use it).

Again i hope this solution can help some-one.

Update: In case of Records > 50000 it is not advisable to use LOOPS as it will degrade the Performance

Answer 6

You may find the solution in SQL User Defined Function to Parse a Delimited String helpful (from The Code Project).

You can use this simple logic:

Declare @products varchar(200) = '1|20|3|343|44|6|8765'
Declare @individual varchar(20) = null

WHILE LEN(@products) > 0
BEGIN
    IF PATINDEX('%|%', @products) > 0
    BEGIN
        SET @individual = SUBSTRING(@products,
                                    0,
                                    PATINDEX('%|%', @products))
        SELECT @individual

        SET @products = SUBSTRING(@products,
                                  LEN(@individual + '|') + 1,
                                  LEN(@products))
    END
    ELSE
    BEGIN
        SET @individual = @products
        SET @products = NULL
        SELECT @individual
    END
END