Split string in SQL

I don't believe SQL Server has a built-in split function, so other than a UDF, the only other answer I know is to hijack the PARSENAME function:

SELECT PARSENAME(REPLACE('Hello John Smith', ' ', '.'), 2) 

PARSENAME takes a string and splits it on the period character. It takes a number as it's second argument, and that number specifies which segment of the string to return (working from back to front).

SELECT PARSENAME(REPLACE('Hello John Smith', ' ', '.'), 3)  --return Hello

Obvious problem is when the string already contains a period. I still think using a UDF is the best way...any other suggestions?

First, create a function (using CTE, common table expression does away with the need for a temp table)

 create function dbo.SplitString 
    (
        @str nvarchar(4000), 
        @separator char(1)
    )
    returns table
    AS
    return (
        with tokens(p, a, b) AS (
            select 
                1, 
                1, 
                charindex(@separator, @str)
            union all
            select
                p + 1, 
                b + 1, 
                charindex(@separator, @str, b + 1)
            from tokens
            where b > 0
        )
        select
            p-1 zeroBasedOccurance,
            substring(
                @str, 
                a, 
                case when b > 0 then b-a ELSE 4000 end) 
            AS s
        from tokens
      )
    GO

Then, use it as any table (or modify it to fit within your existing stored proc) like this.

select s 
from dbo.SplitString('Hello John Smith', ' ')
where zeroBasedOccurance=1

Update

Previous version would fail for input string longer than 4000 chars. This version takes care of the limitation:

create function dbo.SplitString 
(
    @str nvarchar(max), 
    @separator char(1)
)
returns table
AS
return (
with tokens(p, a, b) AS (
    select 
        cast(1 as bigint), 
        cast(1 as bigint), 
        charindex(@separator, @str)
    union all
    select
        p + 1, 
        b + 1, 
        charindex(@separator, @str, b + 1)
    from tokens
    where b > 0
)
select
    p-1 ItemIndex,
    substring(
        @str, 
        a, 
        case when b > 0 then b-a ELSE LEN(@str) end) 
    AS Item
from tokens
);

GO

Usage remains the same.

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','**')

No code, but read the definitive article on this. All solutions in other answers are flavours of the ones listed in this article: Arrays and Lists in SQL Server 2005 and Beyond

Personally, I've used a Numbers table solution most often because it suits what I have to do...

You can leverage a Number table to do the string parsing lightning fast:

    create function [dbo].[ufn_ParseArray]
    (	@Input		nvarchar(4000), 
    	@Delimiter	char(1) = ',',
    	@BaseIdent	int
    )
returns table as
return  
    (	select	row_number() over (order by n desc) + (@BaseIdent - 1) [i],
    			substring(@Input, n, charindex(@Delimiter, @Input + @Delimiter, n) - n) s
    	from	dbo.Number
    	where	n <= convert(int, len(@Input)) and
    			substring(@Delimiter + @Input, n, 1) = @Delimiter
    )

Usage:

declare @Array varchar(500)
set @Array = 'Hello John smith'

select  s 
from    dbo.ufn_ParseArray(@Array, ' ', 0)
where   i = 1

In my opinion you guys are making it way too complicated. Just create a CLR UDF and be done with it.

using System;
using System.Data;
using System.Data.SqlClient;
using System.Data.SqlTypes;
using Microsoft.SqlServer.Server;
using System.Collections.Generic;

public partial class UserDefinedFunctions {
  [SqlFunction]
  public static SqlString SearchString(string Search) {
    List<string> SearchWords = new List<string>();
    foreach (string s in Search.Split(new char[] { ' ' })) {
      if (!s.ToLower().Equals("or") && !s.ToLower().Equals("and")) {
        SearchWords.Add(s);
      }
    }

    return new SqlString(string.Join(" OR ", SearchWords.ToArray()));
  }
};

Here I post a simple way of solution

CREATE FUNCTION [dbo].[split](
          @delimited NVARCHAR(MAX),
          @delimiter NVARCHAR(100)
        ) RETURNS @t TABLE (id INT IDENTITY(1,1), val NVARCHAR(MAX))
        AS
        BEGIN
          DECLARE @xml XML
          SET @xml = N'<t>' + REPLACE(@delimited,@delimiter,'</t><t>') + '</t>'

          INSERT INTO @t(val)
          SELECT  r.value('.','varchar(MAX)') as item
          FROM  @xml.nodes('/t') as records(r)
          RETURN
        END

Execute the function like this

  select * from dbo.split('Hello John Smith',' ')

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')

Option with recursive CTE

CREATE FUNCTION dbo.SplitStrings_CTE(@List nvarchar(1000), @Delimiter nvarchar(1))
RETURNS TABLE WITH SCHEMABINDING
AS
RETURN
WITH cte AS
 (
  SELECT SUBSTRING(@List, 0, CHARINDEX (@Delimiter, @List)) AS val ,
         CAST(STUFF(@List + @Delimiter, 1 , CHARINDEX (@Delimiter, @List), '') AS nvarchar(1000)) AS stval
  UNION ALL
  SELECT SUBSTRING(stval, 0, CHARINDEX(@Delimiter, stval)),
         CAST(STUFF(stval, 1, CHARINDEX(@Delimiter, stval), '') AS nvarchar(1000))
  FROM cte
  WHERE stval != ''
  )
  SELECT REPLACE(val, ' ', '') AS val
  FROM cte

Demo on SQLFiddle

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

I was looking for the solution on net and the below works for me. Ref.

And you call the function like this : SELECT * FROM dbo.split('ram shyam hari gopal',' ')

SET ANSI_NULLS ON
GO
SET QUOTED_IDENTIFIER ON
GO
CREATE FUNCTION [dbo].[Split](@String VARCHAR(8000), @Delimiter CHAR(1))       
RETURNS @temptable TABLE (items VARCHAR(8000))       
AS       
BEGIN       
DECLARE @idx INT       
DECLARE @slice VARCHAR(8000)        
SELECT @idx = 1       
IF len(@String)<1 OR @String IS NULL  RETURN       
while @idx!= 0       
BEGIN       
SET @idx = charindex(@Delimiter,@String)       
IF @idx!=0       
SET @slice = LEFT(@String,@idx - 1)       
ELSE       
SET @slice = @String       
IF(len(@slice)>0)  
INSERT INTO @temptable(Items) VALUES(@slice)       
SET @String = RIGHT(@String,len(@String) - @idx)       
IF len(@String) = 0 break       
END   
RETURN       
END

Well, mine isn't all that simpler, but here is the code I use to split a comma-delimited input variable into individual values, and put it into a table variable. I'm sure you could modify this slightly to split based on a space and then to do a basic SELECT query against that table variable to get your results.

-- Create temporary table to parse the list of accounting cycles.
DECLARE @tblAccountingCycles table
(
    AccountingCycle varchar(10)
)

DECLARE @vchAccountingCycle varchar(10)
DECLARE @intPosition int

SET @vchAccountingCycleIDs = LTRIM(RTRIM(@vchAccountingCycleIDs)) + ','
SET @intPosition = CHARINDEX(',', @vchAccountingCycleIDs, 1)

IF REPLACE(@vchAccountingCycleIDs, ',', '') <> ''
BEGIN
    WHILE @intPosition > 0
    BEGIN
        SET @vchAccountingCycle = LTRIM(RTRIM(LEFT(@vchAccountingCycleIDs, @intPosition - 1)))
        IF @vchAccountingCycle <> ''
        BEGIN
            INSERT INTO @tblAccountingCycles (AccountingCycle) VALUES (@vchAccountingCycle)
        END
        SET @vchAccountingCycleIDs = RIGHT(@vchAccountingCycleIDs, LEN(@vchAccountingCycleIDs) - @intPosition)
        SET @intPosition = CHARINDEX(',', @vchAccountingCycleIDs, 1)
    END
END

The concept is pretty much the same. One other alternative is to leverage the .NET compatibility within SQL Server 2005 itself. You can essentially write yourself a simple method in .NET that would split the string and then expose that as a stored procedure/function.

what about using string and 'values()' statement?

    declare @str varchar(max)
    set @str = 'Hello John Smith'

    declare @separator varchar(max)
    set @separator = ' '

    declare @Splited table(id int identity(1,1), item varchar(max))

    set @str = REPLACE(@str,@separator,'''),(''')
    set @str = 'select * from (values('''+@str+''')) as V(A)' 

    insert into @Splited
    exec(@str)

    select * from @Splited

resultset achieved..

    id  item
    1   Hello
    2   John
    3   Smith

Here's my solution that may help someone. Modification of Jonesinator's answer above.

If I have a string of delimited INT values and want a table of INTs returned (Which I can then join on). e.g. '1,20,3,343,44,6,8765'

Create a UDF:

IF OBJECT_ID(N'dbo.ufn_GetIntTableFromDelimitedList', N'TF') IS NOT NULL
    DROP FUNCTION dbo.[ufn_GetIntTableFromDelimitedList];
GO

CREATE FUNCTION dbo.[ufn_GetIntTableFromDelimitedList](@String NVARCHAR(MAX),                 @Delimiter CHAR(1))

RETURNS @table TABLE 
(
    Value INT NOT NULL
)
AS 
BEGIN
DECLARE @Pattern NVARCHAR(3)
SET @Pattern = '%' + @Delimiter + '%'
DECLARE @Value NVARCHAR(MAX)

WHILE LEN(@String) > 0
    BEGIN
        IF PATINDEX(@Pattern, @String) > 0
        BEGIN
            SET @Value = SUBSTRING(@String, 0, PATINDEX(@Pattern, @String))
            INSERT INTO @table (Value) VALUES (@Value)

            SET @String = SUBSTRING(@String, LEN(@Value + @Delimiter) + 1, LEN(@String))
        END
        ELSE
        BEGIN
            -- Just the one value.
            INSERT INTO @table (Value) VALUES (@String)
            RETURN
        END
    END

RETURN
END
GO

Then get the table results:

SELECT * FROM dbo.[ufn_GetIntTableFromDelimitedList]('1,20,3,343,44,6,8765', ',')

1
20
3
343
44
6
8765

And in a join statement:

SELECT [ID], [FirstName]
FROM [User] u
JOIN dbo.[ufn_GetIntTableFromDelimitedList]('1,20,3,343,44,6,8765', ',') t ON u.[ID] = t.[Value]

1    Elvis
20   Karen
3    David
343  Simon
44   Raj
6    Mike
8765 Richard

If you want to return a list of NVARCHARs instead of INTs then just change the table definition:

RETURNS @table TABLE 
(
    Value NVARCHAR(MAX) NOT NULL
)