Split values over multiple rows [duplicate]

Question

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,

Answer 1

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

Answer 2

This will do without a split function

SELECT T1.reference, T1.name, T2.my_Splits AS subjects, T1.subtitile
FROM
 (
  SELECT *,
  CAST('<X>'+replace(T.subjects,',','</X><X>')+'</X>' as XML) as my_Xml 
  FROM [yourTable] T
 ) T1
 CROSS APPLY
 ( 
 SELECT my_Data.D.value('.','varchar(50)') as my_Splits
 FROM T1.my_Xml.nodes('X') as my_Data(D)
 ) T2