Efficient way to split a string

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Efficient way to split a string

waxb18

Ten Centuries

Points: 1060

August 1, 2019 at 4:31 pm

#3667969

Hi All,

I have a table that is approx 65k rows long. WIthin the table is a varchar(max) column which contains a string as per below

[ { "Code": 123, "Label": "Animal", "Value": "Cow", "RecordYear": "2017-03-09T11:19:58.94" }, { "Code": 456, "Label": "Type", "Value": "Mammal", "RecordYear": "2017-03-09T11:20:26.697" }, { "Code": 789, "Label": "GoodFor", "Value": "Milk","RecordYear": "2017-03-09T11:20:44.65" }, { "Code": 101, "Label": "Annoys", "Value": "Vegans", "RecordYear": "2017-03-09T11:23:40.54" }]

however can be a lot longer,

I have a solution that uses the 8k split string function below but it is extremely slow.

Can anyone help me out.

SELECT   ID
,Case WHen Item like ',%' then 

Substring((LTRIM(RTRIM(REplace(Replace(ITEM, '{', ''), '}', '')))) ,4,len(LTRIM(RTRIM(REplace(Replace(ITEM, '{', ''), '}', '')))))

Else 
(LTRIM(RTRIM(REplace(Replace(ITEM, '{', ''), '}', ''))))
END AS ValueItem
,ItemNumber

INTO #B

FROM #A
CROSS APPLY dbo.[DelimitedSplit8K](Replace(SUBSTRING(Form, 3, len(form) - 3), '"', ''), '}') B

--====================================================================================================================================================

Select 

ID ,  
Replace(SUBSTRING(ValueItem, CHARINDEX('Code: ',ValueItem),CHARINDEX(', Label: ',ValueItem)-1),'Code: ','') as Code,
Replace(SUBSTRING(ValueItem, CHARINDEX('Label: ',ValueItem),CHARINDEX('Value: ',ValueItem)-(CHARINDEX('Label: ',ValueItem)+2)),'Label: ','') as Label,
Replace(Case 
When  ValueItem like '%RecordYear%' 
then  SUBSTRING(ValueItem, CHARINDEX('Value: ',ValueItem), CHARINDEX('RecordYear: ',ValueItem)-(CHARINDEX('Value: ',ValueItem)+2)) 
Else SUBSTRING(ValueItem, CHARINDEX('Value: ',ValueItem),Len(ValueItem))
END ,'Value: ','') as Value,
Case 
When  ValueItem like '%RecordYear%' 
then  REPLACE(SUBSTRING(ValueItem, CHARINDEX('RecordYear: ',ValueItem), Len(ValueItem)) ,'RecordYear: ','')
Else NULL
END  as RecordYear


FROM #B

Viewing 7 posts - 1 through 6 (of 6 total)

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Michael L John One Orange Chip Points: 27055 More actions · Answer 1

Based upon the example of the data you provided, what should that look like when it's finished?

Michael L John
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Jeff Moden SSC Guru Points: 1004355 More actions · Answer 2

I might be missing something but that looks an awful lot like JSON. Is it?

--Jeff Moden

RBAR is pronounced "ree-bar" and is a "Modenism" for Row-By-Agonizing-Row.
First step towards the paradigm shift of writing Set Based code:
________Stop thinking about what you want to do to a ROW... think, instead, of what you want to do to a COLUMN.

Change is inevitable... Change for the better is not.

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ScottPletcher SSC Guru Points: 101098 More actions · Answer 3

Limited sample data, but I think this should perform better, since it avoids all the CHARINDEX costs:

SELECT   A.ID, B.ItemNumber,
    MAX(CASE WHEN D.Item LIKE 'Code:%' THEN LTRIM(SUBSTRING(D.Item, 6, 200)) END) AS Code,
    MAX(CASE WHEN D.Item LIKE 'Label:%' THEN LTRIM(SUBSTRING(D.Item, 7, 200)) END) AS Label,
    MAX(CASE WHEN D.Item LIKE 'Value:%' THEN LTRIM(SUBSTRING(D.Item, 7, 200)) END) AS Value,
    MAX(CASE WHEN D.Item LIKE 'RecordYear:%' THEN LTRIM(SUBSTRING(D.Item, 12, 200)) END) AS RecordYear
    --*/
FROM #A A /*(
    SELECT 1 AS ID, '[{"Code": 123, "Label": "Animal", "Value": "Cow", "RecordYear": "2017-03-09T11:19:58.94" }, { "Code": 456, "Label": "Type", "Value": "Mammal", "RecordYear": "2017-03-09T11:20:26.697" }, { "Code": 789, "Label": "GoodFor", "Value": "Milk","RecordYear": "2017-03-09T11:20:44.65" }, { "Code": 101, "Label": "Annoys", "Value": "Vegans", "RecordYear": "2017-03-09T11:23:40.54" }]' AS Form
) AS A--*/
CROSS APPLY dbo.[DelimitedSplit8K](Replace(SUBSTRING(Form, 3, len(form) - 3), '"', ''), '}') B
CROSS APPLY dbo.[DelimitedSplit8K](Ltrim(Replace(Replace(Item, '{', ''), '}', '')), ',') C
CROSS APPLY ( SELECT LTRIM(RTRIM(C.Item)) AS Item ) AS D
WHERE D.Item > ''
GROUP BY A.ID, B.ItemNumber

SQL DBA,SQL Server MVP(07, 08, 09) "It's a dog-eat-dog world, and I'm wearing Milk-Bone underwear." "Norm", on "Cheers". Also from "Cheers", from "Carla": "You need to know 3 things about Tortelli men: Tortelli men draw women like flies; Tortelli men treat women like flies; Tortelli men's brains are in their flies".

drew.allen SSC Guru Points: 76985 More actions · Answer 4

Jeff Moden wrote:

I might be missing something but that looks an awful lot like JSON. Is it?

I'm with Jeff. This looks like a JSON document.

Drew

J. Drew Allen
Business Intelligence Analyst
Philadelphia, PA

ScottPletcher SSC Guru Points: 101098 More actions · Answer 5

It seems like it, but SQL 2008 doesn't directly read JSON, afaik. It might be easier to handle it with T-SQL rather than try to create some external function/process.