Split values over multiple rows

sql, sql-server, sql-server-2008, stored-procedures

Solution

You will want to use some sort of table-valued split function similar to this:

create FUNCTION [dbo].[Split](@String varchar(MAX), @Delimiter char(1))       
returns @temptable TABLE (items varchar(MAX))       
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;

You can then use `outer apply` to join with yourtable:

select t1.reference,
  t1.name,
  t1.subjectstitle,
  i.items subjects
from yourtable t1
outer apply dbo.split(t1.subjects, ',') i

Giving a result like this:

| REFERENCE |                          NAME | SUBJECTSTITLE | SUBJECTS |
------------------------------------------------------------------------
|  LL9X81MT | Making and Decorating Pottery |        (null) |      F06 |
|  LL9X81MT | Making and Decorating Pottery |        (null) |      F27 |
|  LL9X81MT | Making and Decorating Pottery |        (null) |      F38 |

See SQL fiddle with Demo

If you want to do this without a split function, then you can use CTE:

;with cte (reference, name, subjectstitle, subjectitem, subjects) as
(
  select reference,
    name,
    subjectstitle,
    cast(left(subjects, charindex(',',subjects+',')-1) as varchar(50)) subjectitem,
         stuff(subjects, 1, charindex(',',subjects+','), '') subjects
  from yourtable
  union all
  select reference,
    name,
    subjectstitle,
    cast(left(subjects, charindex(',',subjects+',')-1) as varchar(50)) ,
    stuff(subjects, 1, charindex(',',subjects+','), '') subjects
  from cte
  where subjects > ''
) 
select reference, name, subjectstitle, subjectitem
from cte

See SQL Fiddle with Demo

Problem

Possible Duplicate: Turning a Comma Separated string into individual rows I have the following output from a stored procedure and was wondering the best way to split the values into multiple rows. ``` reference name subjects subjectstitle LL9X81MT Making and Decorating Pottery F06,F27,F38 NULL ``` I need to trim the subjects field at the comma's and duplicate the information over three rows so the data would be as follows. ``` reference name subjects subjectstitle LL9X81MT Making and Decorating Pottery F06 NULL LL9X81MT Making and Decorating Pottery F27 NULL LL9X81MT Making and Decorating Pottery F38 NULL ``` I'm using MS SQL Server 2008 to setup these SP's and just need some help on how to split the subjects field up. Thanks,

Original source

Related problems