Convert or split comma separated string into table rows in Sql server

Introduction: In this article I am going to share how to convert or split large comma separated string into table rows using our own created custom function in sql server.

In previous articles i explained How to get column values as comma separated list in sql server and Concatenate first,middle and last name in Sql Server and Multiple queries to get second,third,fourth or nth highest salary of employee and Difference between temporary table and table variable and Copy all data from one database table to another database table

Description: Here I will create a table valued user defined function that splits or converts  a string containing words or letters separated by comma into table rowset. 

Implementation: Let’s create a user defined function to split passed string

CREATE FUNCTION SplitString

(

            @Str NVARCHAR(MAX),

            @Separator     CHAR(1)

)

RETURNS @ResultOutput TABLE(Id INT IDENTITY(1,1), Result NVARCHAR(100))

AS

BEGIN

            DECLARE @Splitted_string NVARCHAR(4000)

            DECLARE @Pos INT

            DECLARE @NextPos INT

           

            SET @Str = @Str + @Separator

            SET @Pos = CHARINDEX(@Separator,@Str)

            WHILE (@pos <> 0)

                        BEGIN

                                    SET @Splitted_string = SUBSTRING(@Str,1,@Pos - 1)

                                    SET @Str = SUBSTRING(@Str,@pos+1,LEN(@Str))

                                    SET @pos = CHARINDEX(@Separator,@Str)

                                    INSERT INTO @ResultOutput VALUES(@Splitted_string)

                        END

            RETURN

END 

You just need to pass the string and the separator e.g. if the string have words or letters separated by comma then pass that string and the separator  ','(Comma) to the function. Similarly if the string contains the words or letters separated by space then pass the separator ' '(space) to split the string into table rows.

Using SplitString function In Query: 

--Split string by comma

SELECT Result FROM SplitString('Split,string,example,in,sql,server',',')

--Split string by pipe symbol

SELECT Result FROM SplitString('Split|string|example|in|sql|server','|')

--Split string by space

SELECT Result FROM SplitString('Split string example in sql server',' ') 

Query output will be as: 

Result

Split

string

example

In

Sql

server

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