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Split Any Delimited String in SQL

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11 Sep 2015CPOL 13.5K   2   10
This is an alternative for "Split Any Delimited String in SQL"
It's still not a very good solution ("any" is most inaccurate), but here's a Recursive Common Table Expression way to do it.
SQL
CREATE FUNCTION dbo.fnSimpleSplit 
( @InputString NVARCHAR(MAX)
, @Delimiter   NCHAR(1)
)
RETURNS TABLE 
AS
RETURN 
(
  -- SELECT * FROM dbo.fnSimpleSplit ( 'Apple, Mango, Orange, Pineapple' , ',' )

  WITH cte AS
  (
    SELECT CAST(NULL AS NVARCHAR(MAX)) val , @InputString + @Delimiter s , CHARINDEX(@Delimiter,@InputString) offset
  UNION ALL
    SELECT SUBSTRING(s,1,offset-1) , SUBSTRING(s,offset+1,LEN(s)) , CHARINDEX(@Delimiter,s,offset+1)-offset
    FROM cte
    WHERE offset>0
  )
  SELECT val
  FROM cte
  WHERE val IS NOT NULL
)

License

This article, along with any associated source code and files, is licensed under The Code Project Open License (CPOL)


Written By
Software Developer (Senior)
United States United States
BSCS 1992 Wentworth Institute of Technology

Originally from the Boston (MA) area. Lived in SoCal for a while. Now in the Phoenix (AZ) area.

OpenVMS enthusiast, ISO 8601 evangelist, photographer, opinionated SOB, acknowledged pedant and contrarian

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Comments and Discussions

 
QuestionA Possible Alternative Pin
David A. Gray14-Sep-15 9:10
David A. Gray14-Sep-15 9:10 
AnswerRe: A Possible Alternative Pin
PIEBALDconsult14-Sep-15 17:37
mvePIEBALDconsult14-Sep-15 17:37 
GeneralRe: A Possible Alternative Pin
David A. Gray15-Sep-15 12:14
David A. Gray15-Sep-15 12:14 
GeneralRe: A Possible Alternative Pin
PIEBALDconsult15-Sep-15 12:29
mvePIEBALDconsult15-Sep-15 12:29 
GeneralRe: A Possible Alternative Pin
David A. Gray15-Sep-15 12:55
David A. Gray15-Sep-15 12:55 
GeneralRe: A Possible Alternative Pin
Jovan Popovic(MSFT)16-Sep-15 4:23
Jovan Popovic(MSFT)16-Sep-15 4:23 
GeneralRe: A Possible Alternative Pin
PIEBALDconsult16-Sep-15 5:20
mvePIEBALDconsult16-Sep-15 5:20 
Ah, well, I'd use XML. Big Grin | :-D
GeneralRe: A Possible Alternative Pin
David A. Gray16-Sep-15 8:40
David A. Gray16-Sep-15 8:40 
GeneralRe: A Possible Alternative Pin
PIEBALDconsult16-Sep-15 11:45
mvePIEBALDconsult16-Sep-15 11:45 

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