Sql Sting Split Into Single Column

Very new to SQL but I require some help with something that I am sure is a simple fix. I have a single column of data within a table called 'Produce' where types of fruit are store

Solution 1:

The core problem to fix would be to stop storing your values as comma separated lists. Keep your data normalized. With that being said... everyone needs a good splitter...

declare@tabletable (Fruit varchar(64))
insertinto@tablevalues
('Apple'),
('Plum'),
('Pear,Mango'),
('Pear')

selectdistinct
    Item
from@tablecross apply
    dbo.DelimitedSplit8K(Fruit,',')

OR, If you are on SQL Server 2016...

selectdistinct
    Item
from@tablecross apply
    string_split(Fruit,',')

THE FUNCTION

SET ANSI_NULLS ON
GO

SET QUOTED_IDENTIFIER ON
GO

CREATEFUNCTION [dbo].[DelimitedSplit8K] (@pStringVARCHAR(8000), @pDelimiterCHAR(1))
--WARNING!!! DO NOT USE MAX DATA-TYPES HERE!  IT WILL KILL PERFORMANCE!RETURNSTABLEWITH SCHEMABINDING ASRETURN/* "Inline" CTE Driven "Tally Table" produces values from 1 up to 10,000...
enough to cover VARCHAR(8000)*/WITH E1(N) AS (
                 SELECT1UNIONALLSELECT1UNIONALLSELECT1UNIONALLSELECT1UNIONALLSELECT1UNIONALLSELECT1UNIONALLSELECT1UNIONALLSELECT1UNIONALLSELECT1UNIONALLSELECT1
                ),                          --10E+1 or 10 rows
       E2(N) AS (SELECT1FROM E1 a, E1 b), --10E+2 or 100 rows
       E4(N) AS (SELECT1FROM E2 a, E2 b), --10E+4 or 10,000 rows max
 cteTally(N) AS (--==== This provides the "base" CTE and limits the number of rows right up front-- for both a performance gain and prevention of accidental "overruns"SELECT TOP (ISNULL(DATALENGTH(@pString),0)) ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDERBY (SELECTNULL)) FROM E4
                ),
cteStart(N1) AS (--==== This returns N+1 (starting position of each "element" just once for each delimiter)SELECT1UNIONALLSELECT t.N+1FROM cteTally t WHERESUBSTRING(@pString,t.N,1) =@pDelimiter
                ),
cteLen(N1,L1) AS(--==== Return start and length (for use in substring)SELECT s.N1,
                        ISNULL(NULLIF(CHARINDEX(@pDelimiter,@pString,s.N1),0)-s.N1,8000)
                   FROM cteStart s
                )
--===== Do the actual split. The ISNULL/NULLIF combo handles the length for the final element when no delimiter is found.SELECT ItemNumber =ROW_NUMBER() OVER(ORDERBY l.N1),
        Item       =SUBSTRING(@pString, l.N1, l.L1)
   FROM cteLen l
;
GO

Jeff Moden Article for Function

Solution 2:

This can be done with pure SQL, no user written functions needed.

SQL Server

WITH
    fruittable
    AS
        (   SELECT'Apple' fruit, 1 id
         UNIONALLSELECT'Banana,Apple', 2UNIONALLSELECT'Tomato,Grapefruit,Apple', 3UNIONALLSELECT'Watermelon,Persimmons', 4
          ),
    split (fruit, id, leftover)
    AS
        (SELECTcasewhen len(fruit) =0or fruit isnullthennullelseleft(fruit +',',  charindex(',',fruit +',') -1 ) endAS fruit
              , id
              , casewhen len(fruit) =0or fruit isnullthennullelseright(fruit +',', len(fruit) - charindex(',',fruit +',') +1) endas leftover
           FROM fruittable
         UNIONALLSELECTcasewhen len(leftover) =0or leftover isnullthennullelseleft(leftover,  charindex(',',leftover) -1) endAS fruit
              , id
              , casewhen len(leftover) =0or leftover isnullthennullelsesubstring(leftover,  charindex(',',leftover) +1, len(leftover)) endas leftover
           FROM split
          WHERE fruit ISNOTNULL)
SELECT fruit, id
  FROM split where fruit isnotnullorderby fruit, id;

Oracle

WITH
    fruittable
    AS
        (SELECT'Apple' fruit, 1 id
           FROM DUAL
         UNIONALLSELECT'Banana,Apple', 2FROM DUAL
         UNIONALLSELECT'Tomato,Grapefruit,Apple', 3FROM DUAL
         UNIONALLSELECT'Watermelon,Persimmons', 4FROM DUAL),
    split (fruit, id, leftover)
    AS
        (SELECT SUBSTR (fruit ||',', 1, INSTR (fruit ||',', ',') -1) AS fruit
              , id
              , SUBSTR (fruit ||',', INSTR (fruit ||',', ',') +1) AS leftover
           FROM fruittable
         UNIONALLSELECT SUBSTR (leftover, 1, INSTR (leftover, ',') -1) AS fruit
              , id
              , SUBSTR (leftover, INSTR (leftover, ',') +1) AS leftover
           FROM split
          WHERE fruit ISNOTNULL)
  SELECT fruit, id
    FROM split
   WHERE fruit ISNOTNULLORDERBY fruit, id