Lynn Pettis (12/11/2012)
Just some food for thought:
declare @TestString varchar(8000) = '30;38469|31;38470|32;38471|33;38472|34;38473|35;38474|36;38475|37;38476|38;38477|';
select
max(case ds2.ItemNumber when 1 then ds2.Item else '' end) as field1,
max(case ds2.ItemNumber when 2 then ds2.Item else '' end) as field2
from
dbo.DelimitedSplit8K(@TestString,'|') ds1
cross apply dbo.DelimitedSplit8K(ds1.Item,';') ds2
where
ds1.Item <> ''
group by
ds1.ItemNumber;
Uses Jeff's DelimitedSplit8K function as is.
You will find the code for the dbo.DelimitedSplit8K function here: http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/Tally+Table/72993/.
You're right, that's a much better idea. To make it work for the OPs requirements, I'd stick it in a sproc to generate the result-set dynamically so that the number of "field" doesn't need to be known before-hand.
So first, we need Jeff's splitter: -
IF EXISTS (SELECT 1
FROM sysobjects
WHERE id = OBJECT_ID('DelimitedSplit8K'))
BEGIN
DROP FUNCTION [dbo].[DelimitedSplit8K];
END
GO
CREATE FUNCTION [dbo].[DelimitedSplit8K]
--===== Define I/O parameters
(@pString VARCHAR(8000), @pDelimiter CHAR(1))
--WARNING!!! DO NOT USE MAX DATA-TYPES HERE! IT WILL KILL PERFORMANCE!
RETURNS TABLE WITH SCHEMABINDING AS
RETURN
--===== "Inline" CTE Driven "Tally Table" produces values from 1 up to 10,000...
-- enough to cover VARCHAR(8000)
WITH E1(N) AS (
SELECT 1 UNION ALL SELECT 1 UNION ALL SELECT 1 UNION ALL
SELECT 1 UNION ALL SELECT 1 UNION ALL SELECT 1 UNION ALL
SELECT 1 UNION ALL SELECT 1 UNION ALL SELECT 1 UNION ALL SELECT 1
), --10E+1 or 10 rows
E2(N) AS (SELECT 1 FROM E1 a, E1 b), --10E+2 or 100 rows
E4(N) AS (SELECT 1 FROM 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 (ORDER BY (SELECT NULL)) FROM E4
),
cteStart(N1) AS (--==== This returns N+1 (starting position of each "element" just once for each delimiter)
SELECT 1 UNION ALL
SELECT t.N+1 FROM cteTally t WHERE SUBSTRING(@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(ORDER BY l.N1),
Item = SUBSTRING(@pString, l.N1, l.L1)
FROM cteLen l
;
GO
Then we need the calling sproc: -
IF EXISTS (SELECT 1
FROM sysobjects
WHERE id = OBJECT_ID('SSC_Multi_Split'))
BEGIN
DROP PROCEDURE SSC_Multi_Split;
END
GO
CREATE PROCEDURE SSC_Multi_Split (@string VARCHAR(8000), @rowDeliminater CHAR(1), @colDeliminater CHAR(1))
AS
BEGIN
IF object_id('tempdb..#temporaryResultHolder') IS NOT NULL
BEGIN
DROP TABLE #temporaryResultHolder;
END;
SELECT ds1.ItemNumber AS rowNumber, ds2.ItemNumber AS columnNumber, ds2.Item AS data
INTO #temporaryResultHolder
FROM dbo.DelimitedSplit8K(@string, @rowDeliminater) ds1
CROSS APPLY dbo.DelimitedSplit8K(ds1.Item, @colDeliminater) ds2
WHERE ds1.Item <> '';
DECLARE @SQL NVARCHAR(MAX);
WITH CTE1(N) AS (SELECT 1 UNION ALL SELECT 1 UNION ALL SELECT 1 UNION ALL SELECT 1 UNION ALL SELECT 1 UNION ALL
SELECT 1 UNION ALL SELECT 1 UNION ALL SELECT 1 UNION ALL SELECT 1 UNION ALL SELECT 1),
CTE2(N) AS (SELECT 1 FROM CTE1 X CROSS JOIN CTE1 Y),
CTE3(N) AS (SELECT 1 FROM CTE2 X CROSS JOIN CTE2 Y),
CTE4(N) AS (SELECT 1 FROM CTE3 X CROSS JOIN CTE3 Y),
CTE5(N) AS (SELECT 1 FROM CTE4 X CROSS JOIN CTE4 Y),
CTE6(N) AS (SELECT 1 FROM CTE5 X CROSS JOIN CTE5 Y),
TALLY(N) AS (SELECT TOP (ISNULL(DATALENGTH(@string),0))
ROW_NUMBER() OVER(ORDER BY (SELECT NULL))
FROM CTE6)
SELECT @SQL = STUFF((SELECT ','+CHAR(13)+CHAR(10)+'MAX(CASE WHEN columnNumber = '+CAST(N AS VARCHAR(20))+' THEN data ELSE '+CHAR(39)+CHAR(39)+' END) AS field'+CAST(N AS VARCHAR(20))
FROM TALLY
CROSS APPLY (SELECT TOP 1 columnNumber
FROM #temporaryResultHolder
ORDER BY columnNumber DESC) b
WHERE columnNumber >= N
FOR XML PATH(''), TYPE
).value('.', 'NVARCHAR(MAX)'),1,3,'');
SELECT @SQL = 'SELECT '+@SQL+CHAR(13)+CHAR(10)+'FROM #temporaryResultHolder'+CHAR(13)+CHAR(10)+'GROUP BY rowNumber'+CHAR(13)+CHAR(10)+'ORDER BY rowNumber';
EXECUTE sp_executeSQL @SQL;
END
GO
And we execute as follows: -
EXECUTE SSC_Multi_Split '30;38469|31;38470|32;38471|33;38472|34;38473|35;38474|36;38475|37;38476|38;38477|','|',';';