How can I select from list of values in SQL Server

select-query, sql-server

Solution

Simplest way to get the distinct values of a long list of comma delimited text would be to use a find an replace with UNION to get the distinct values.

SELECT 1
UNION SELECT 1
UNION SELECT 1
UNION SELECT 2
UNION SELECT 5
UNION SELECT 1
UNION SELECT 6

Applied to your long line of comma delimited text

- Find and replace every comma with `UNION SELECT`

- Add a `SELECT` in front of the statement

You now should have a working query

Problem

I have very simple problem that I can't solve. I need to do something like this: ``` select distinct * from (1, 1, 1, 2, 5, 1, 6). ``` Anybody can help?? Edit The data comes as a text file from one of our clients. It's totally unformatted (it's a single, very long line of text), but it may be possible to do so in Excel. But it's not practical for me, because I will need to use these values in my sql query. It's not convenient to do so every time I need to run a query.

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