How do I split a delimited string so I can access individual items?

Question

Using SQL Server, how do I split a string so I can access item x?

Take a string "Hello John Smith". How can I split the string by space and access the item at index 1 which should return "John"?

Answer 1

SQL Server 2022 supports the following signature of STRING_SPLIT:

STRING_SPLIT ( string , separator [ , enable_ordinal ] )

When enable_ordinal flag is set to 1 the result will include a column named ordinal that consists of the 1‑based position of the substring within the input string:

SELECT *
FROM STRING_SPLIT('hello john smith', ' ', 1)

| value | ordinal |
|-------|---------|
| hello | 1       |
| john  | 2       |
| smith | 3       |

This allows us to do this:

SELECT value
FROM STRING_SPLIT('hello john smith', ' ', 1)
WHERE ordinal = 2

| value |
|-------|
| john  |

Or this:

SELECT str, substr
FROM (VALUES
  ('hello john smith'),
  ('hello jane'),
  ('hello')
) AS t(str)
OUTER APPLY (
  SELECT value
  FROM STRING_SPLIT(str, ' ', 1)
  WHERE ordinal = 2
) AS a(substr)

| str              | substr |
|------------------|--------|
| hello john smith | john   |
| hello jane       | jane   |
| hello            | null   |

Answer 2

Modified function of @Aaron Bertrand

CREATE FUNCTION [dbo].[SplitString]
(
    @List NVARCHAR(MAX),
    @Delim VARCHAR(255),
    @Idx int
)
RETURNS NVARCHAR(1000)
AS
BEGIN
    DECLARE @ValueTable TABLE(String NVARCHAR(50), Ind int)
    DECLARE @Value NVARCHAR(50)
    BEGIN
    INSERT INTO @ValueTable
    SELECT Value, idx FROM
        (SELECT [Value], idx = RANK() OVER (ORDER BY n) FROM 
              ( 
                SELECT n = Number, 
                [Value] = LTRIM(RTRIM(SUBSTRING(@List, [Number],
                CHARINDEX(@Delim, @List + @Delim, [Number]) - [Number])))
                FROM    
                        (SELECT Number = ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDER BY name)
                         FROM sys.all_objects) AS x
                WHERE Number <= LEN(@List)
                AND SUBSTRING(@Delim + @List, [Number], LEN(@Delim)) = @Delim
              ) AS y
          ) AS R WHERE idx = @Idx
    SET @Value = (SELECT String FROM @ValueTable)
    END
    RETURN @Value
END
GO

Answer 3

Most of the solutions here use while loops or recursive CTEs. A set-based approach will be superior, I promise, if you can use a delimiter other than a space:

CREATE FUNCTION [dbo].[SplitString]
    (
        @List NVARCHAR(MAX),
        @Delim VARCHAR(255)
    )
    RETURNS TABLE
    AS
        RETURN ( SELECT [Value], idx = RANK() OVER (ORDER BY n) FROM 
          ( 
            SELECT n = Number, 
              [Value] = LTRIM(RTRIM(SUBSTRING(@List, [Number],
              CHARINDEX(@Delim, @List + @Delim, [Number]) - [Number])))
            FROM (SELECT Number = ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDER BY name)
              FROM sys.all_objects) AS x
              WHERE Number <= LEN(@List)
              AND SUBSTRING(@Delim + @List, [Number], LEN(@Delim)) = @Delim
          ) AS y
        );

Sample usage:

SELECT Value FROM dbo.SplitString('foo,bar,blat,foo,splunge',',')
  WHERE idx = 3;

Results:

----
blat

You could also add the idx you want as an argument to the function, but I'll leave that as an exercise to the reader.

You can't do this with just the native STRING_SPLIT function added in SQL Server 2016, because there is no guarantee that the output will be rendered in the order of the original list. In other words, if you pass in 3,6,1 the result will likely be in that order, but it could be 1,3,6. I have asked for the community's help in improving the built-in function here:

• Please help with STRING_SPLIT improvements

With enough qualitative feedback, they may actually consider making some of these enhancements:

• STRING_SPLIT is not feature complete

More on split functions, why (and proof that) while loops and recursive CTEs don't scale, and better alternatives, if splitting strings coming from the application layer:

• Split strings the right way – or the next best way
• Splitting Strings : A Follow-Up
• Splitting Strings : Now with less T-SQL
• Comparing string splitting / concatenation methods
• Processing a list of integers : my approach
• Splitting a list of integers : another roundup
• More on splitting lists : custom delimiters, preventing duplicates, and maintaining order
• Removing Duplicates from Strings in SQL Server

On SQL Server 2016 or above, though, you should look at STRING_SPLIT() and STRING_AGG():

• Performance Surprises and Assumptions : STRING_SPLIT()
• STRING_SPLIT() in SQL Server 2016 : Follow-Up #1
• STRING_SPLIT() in SQL Server 2016 : Follow-Up #2
• SQL Server v.Next : STRING_AGG() performance
• Solve old problems with SQL Server’s new STRING_AGG and STRING_SPLIT functions

Answer 4

CREATE TABLE test(
    id int,
    adress varchar(100)
);
INSERT INTO test VALUES(1, 'Ludovic Aubert, 42 rue de la Victoire, 75009, Paris, France'),(2, 'Jose Garcia, 1 Calle de la Victoria, 56500 Barcelona, Espana');

SELECT id, value, COUNT(*) OVER (PARTITION BY id) AS n, ROW_NUMBER() OVER (PARTITION BY id ORDER BY (SELECT NULL)) AS rn, adress
FROM test
CROSS APPLY STRING_SPLIT(adress, ',')

Answer 5

Almost all the other answers are replacing the string being split which wastes CPU cycles and performs unnecessary memory allocations.

I cover a much better way to do a string split here: http://www.digitalruby.com/split-string-sql-server/

Here is the code:

SET NOCOUNT ON

-- You will want to change nvarchar(MAX) to nvarchar(50), varchar(50) or whatever matches exactly with the string column you will be searching against
DECLARE @SplitStringTable TABLE (Value nvarchar(MAX) NOT NULL)
DECLARE @StringToSplit nvarchar(MAX) = 'your|string|to|split|here'
DECLARE @SplitEndPos int
DECLARE @SplitValue nvarchar(MAX)
DECLARE @SplitDelim nvarchar(1) = '|'
DECLARE @SplitStartPos int = 1

SET @SplitEndPos = CHARINDEX(@SplitDelim, @StringToSplit, @SplitStartPos)

WHILE @SplitEndPos > 0
BEGIN
    SET @SplitValue = SUBSTRING(@StringToSplit, @SplitStartPos, (@SplitEndPos - @SplitStartPos))
    INSERT @SplitStringTable (Value) VALUES (@SplitValue)
    SET @SplitStartPos = @SplitEndPos + 1
    SET @SplitEndPos = CHARINDEX(@SplitDelim, @StringToSplit, @SplitStartPos)
END

SET @SplitValue = SUBSTRING(@StringToSplit, @SplitStartPos, 2147483647)
INSERT @SplitStringTable (Value) VALUES(@SplitValue)

SET NOCOUNT OFF

-- You can select or join with the values in @SplitStringTable at this point.

Answer 6

If you check the following SQL tutorial on splitting string using SQL, you will find a number of functions that can be used to split a given string on SQL Server

For example, SplitAndReturnNth UDF function can be used to split a text using a separator and return the Nth piece as the output of the function

select dbo.SplitAndReturnNth('Hello John Smith',' ',2)

Answer 7

Using SQL Server 2016 and above. Use this code to TRIM strings, ignore NULL values and apply a row index in the correct order. It also works with a space delimiter:

DECLARE @STRING_VALUE NVARCHAR(MAX) = 'one, two,,three, four,     five'

SELECT ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDER BY R.[index]) [index], R.[value] FROM
(
    SELECT
        1 [index], NULLIF(TRIM([value]), '') [value] FROM STRING_SPLIT(@STRING_VALUE, ',') T
    WHERE
        NULLIF(TRIM([value]), '') IS NOT NULL
) R

Answer 8

This question is not about a string split approach, but about how to get the nth element.

All answers here are doing some kind of string splitting using recursion, CTEs, multiple CHARINDEX, REVERSE and PATINDEX, inventing functions, call for CLR methods, number tables, CROSS APPLYs ... Most answers cover many lines of code.

But - if you really want nothing more than an approach to get the nth element - this can be done as real one-liner, no UDF, not even a sub-select... And as an extra benefit: type safe

Get part 2 delimited by a space:

DECLARE @input NVARCHAR(100)=N'part1 part2 part3';
SELECT CAST(N'<x>' + REPLACE(@input,N' ',N'</x><x>') + N'</x>' AS XML).value('/x[2]','nvarchar(max)')

Of course you can use variables for delimiter and position (use sql:column to retrieve the position directly from a query's value):

DECLARE @dlmt NVARCHAR(10)=N' ';
DECLARE @pos INT = 2;
SELECT CAST(N'<x>' + REPLACE(@input,@dlmt,N'</x><x>') + N'</x>' AS XML).value('/x[sql:variable("@pos")][1]','nvarchar(max)')

If your string might include forbidden characters (especially one among &><), you still can do it this way. Just use FOR XML PATH on your string first to replace all forbidden characters with the fitting escape sequence implicitly.

It's a very special case if - additionally - your delimiter is the semicolon. In this case I replace the delimiter first to '#DLMT#', and replace this to the XML tags finally:

SET @input=N'Some <, > and &;Other äöü@€;One more';
SET @dlmt=N';';
SELECT CAST(N'<x>' + REPLACE((SELECT REPLACE(@input,@dlmt,'#DLMT#') AS [*] FOR XML PATH('')),N'#DLMT#',N'</x><x>') + N'</x>' AS XML).value('/x[sql:variable("@pos")][1]','nvarchar(max)');

UPDATE for SQL-Server 2016+

Regretfully the developers forgot to return the part's index with STRING_SPLIT. But, using SQL-Server 2016+, there is JSON_VALUE and OPENJSON.

With JSON_VALUE we can pass in the position as the index' array.

For OPENJSON the documentation states clearly:

When OPENJSON parses a JSON array, the function returns the indexes of the elements in the JSON text as keys.

A string like 1,2,3 needs nothing more than brackets: [1,2,3].
A string of words like this is an example needs to be ["this","is","an","example"].
These are very easy string operations. Just try it out:

DECLARE @str VARCHAR(100)='Hello John Smith';
DECLARE @position INT = 2;

--We can build the json-path '$[1]' using CONCAT
SELECT JSON_VALUE('["' + REPLACE(@str,' ','","') + '"]',CONCAT('$[',@position-1,']'));

--See this for a position safe string-splitter (zero-based):

SELECT  JsonArray.[key] AS [Position]
       ,JsonArray.[value] AS [Part]
FROM OPENJSON('["' + REPLACE(@str,' ','","') + '"]') JsonArray

In this post I tested various approaches and found, that OPENJSON is really fast. Even much faster than the famous "delimitedSplit8k()" method...

UPDATE 2 - Get the values type-safe

We can use an array within an array simply by using doubled [[]]. This allows for a typed WITH-clause:

DECLARE  @SomeDelimitedString VARCHAR(100)='part1|1|20190920';

DECLARE @JsonArray NVARCHAR(MAX)=CONCAT('[["',REPLACE(@SomeDelimitedString,'|','","'),'"]]');

SELECT @SomeDelimitedString          AS TheOriginal
      ,@JsonArray                    AS TransformedToJSON
      ,ValuesFromTheArray.*
FROM OPENJSON(@JsonArray)
WITH(TheFirstFragment  VARCHAR(100) '$[0]'
    ,TheSecondFragment INT          '$[1]'
    ,TheThirdFragment  DATE         '$[2]') ValuesFromTheArray

Answer 9

I realize this is a really old question, but starting with SQL Server 2016 there are functions for parsing JSON data that can be used to specifically address the OP's question--and without splitting strings or resorting to a user-defined function. To access an item at a particular index of a delimited string, use the JSON_VALUE function. Properly formatted JSON data is required, however: strings must be enclosed in double quotes " and the delimiter must be a comma ,, with the entire string enclosed in square brackets [].

DECLARE @SampleString NVARCHAR(MAX) = '"Hello John Smith"';
--Format as JSON data.
SET @SampleString = '[' + REPLACE(@SampleString, ' ', '","') + ']';
SELECT 
    JSON_VALUE(@SampleString, '$[0]') AS Element1Value,
    JSON_VALUE(@SampleString, '$[1]') AS Element2Value,
    JSON_VALUE(@SampleString, '$[2]') AS Element3Value;

Output

Element1Value         Element2Value       Element3Value
--------------------- ------------------- ------------------------------
Hello                 John                Smith

(1 row affected)

Answer 10

I know its late, but I recently had this requirement and came up with the below code. I don't have a choice to use User defined function. Hope this helps.

SELECT 
    SUBSTRING(
                SUBSTRING('Hello John Smith' ,0,CHARINDEX(' ','Hello John Smith',CHARINDEX(' ','Hello John Smith')+1)
                        ),CHARINDEX(' ','Hello John Smith'),LEN('Hello John Smith')
            )

Answer 11

SIMPLE SOLUTION FOR PARSING FIRST AND LAST NAME

DECLARE @Name varchar(10) = 'John Smith'

-- Get First Name
SELECT SUBSTRING(@Name, 0, (SELECT CHARINDEX(' ', @Name)))

-- Get Last Name
SELECT SUBSTRING(@Name, (SELECT CHARINDEX(' ', @Name)) + 1, LEN(@Name))

In my case (and in many others it seems...), I have a list of first and last names separated by a single space. This can be used directly inside a select statement to parse first and last name.

-- i.e. Get First and Last Name from a table of Full Names
SELECT SUBSTRING(FullName, 0, (SELECT CHARINDEX(' ', FullName))) as FirstName,
SUBSTRING(FullName, (SELECT CHARINDEX(' ', FullName)) + 1, LEN(FullName)) as LastName,
From FullNameTable

Answer 12

If your database has compatibility level of 130 or higher then you can use the STRING_SPLIT function along with OFFSET FETCH clauses to get the specific item by index.

To get the item at index N (zero based), you can use the following code

SELECT value
FROM STRING_SPLIT('Hello John Smith',' ')
ORDER BY (SELECT NULL)
OFFSET N ROWS
FETCH NEXT 1 ROWS ONLY

To check the compatibility level of your database, execute this code:

SELECT compatibility_level  
FROM sys.databases WHERE name = 'YourDBName';

Answer 13

Here is a function that will accomplish the question's goal of splitting a string and accessing item X:

CREATE FUNCTION [dbo].[SplitString]
(
   @List       VARCHAR(MAX),
   @Delimiter  VARCHAR(255),
   @ElementNumber INT
)
RETURNS VARCHAR(MAX)
AS
BEGIN

       DECLARE @inp VARCHAR(MAX)
       SET @inp = (SELECT REPLACE(@List,@Delimiter,'_DELMTR_') FOR XML PATH(''))

       DECLARE @xml XML
       SET @xml = '<split><el>' + REPLACE(@inp,'_DELMTR_','</el><el>') + '</el></split>'

       DECLARE @ret VARCHAR(MAX)
       SET @ret = (SELECT
              el = split.el.value('.','varchar(max)')
       FROM  @xml.nodes('/split/el[string-length(.)>0][position() = sql:variable("@elementnumber")]') split(el))

       RETURN @ret

END

Usage:

SELECT dbo.SplitString('Hello John Smith', ' ', 2)

Result:

John

Answer 14

Aaron Bertrand's answer is great, but flawed. It doesn't accurately handle a space as a delimiter (as was the example in the original question) since the length function strips trailing spaces.

The following is his code, with a small adjustment to allow for a space delimiter:

CREATE FUNCTION [dbo].[SplitString]
(
    @List NVARCHAR(MAX),
    @Delim VARCHAR(255)
)
RETURNS TABLE
AS
    RETURN ( SELECT [Value] FROM 
      ( 
        SELECT 
          [Value] = LTRIM(RTRIM(SUBSTRING(@List, [Number],
          CHARINDEX(@Delim, @List + @Delim, [Number]) - [Number])))
        FROM (SELECT Number = ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDER BY name)
          FROM sys.all_objects) AS x
          WHERE Number <= LEN(@List)
          AND SUBSTRING(@Delim + @List, [Number], LEN(@Delim+'x')-1) = @Delim
      ) AS y
    );

Answer 15

A modern approach using STRING_SPLIT, requires SQL Server 2016 and above.

DECLARE @string varchar(100) = 'Hello John Smith'

SELECT
    ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDER BY value) AS RowNr,
    value
FROM string_split(@string, ' ')

Result:

RowNr   value
1       Hello
2       John
3       Smith

Now it is possible to get th nth element from the row number.

Answer 16

Starting with SQL Server 2016 we string_split

DECLARE @string varchar(100) = 'Richard, Mike, Mark'

SELECT value FROM string_split(@string, ',')

Answer 17

declare @strng varchar(max)='hello john smith'
select (
    substring(
        @strng,
        charindex(' ', @strng) + 1,
        (
          (charindex(' ', @strng, charindex(' ', @strng) + 1))
          - charindex(' ',@strng)
        )
    ))

Answer 18

You may find the solution in SQL User Defined Function to Parse a Delimited String helpful (from The Code Project).

You can use this simple logic:

Declare @products varchar(200) = '1|20|3|343|44|6|8765'
Declare @individual varchar(20) = null

WHILE LEN(@products) > 0
BEGIN
    IF PATINDEX('%|%', @products) > 0
    BEGIN
        SET @individual = SUBSTRING(@products,
                                    0,
                                    PATINDEX('%|%', @products))
        SELECT @individual

        SET @products = SUBSTRING(@products,
                                  LEN(@individual + '|') + 1,
                                  LEN(@products))
    END
    ELSE
    BEGIN
        SET @individual = @products
        SET @products = NULL
        SELECT @individual
    END
END

Answer 19

building on @NothingsImpossible solution, or, rather, comment on the most voted answer (just below the accepted one), i found the following quick-and-dirty solution fulfill my own needs - it has a benefit of being solely within SQL domain.

given a string "first;second;third;fourth;fifth", say, I want to get the third token. this works only if we know how many tokens the string is going to have - in this case it's 5. so my way of action is to chop the last two tokens away (inner query), and then to chop the first two tokens away (outer query)

i know that this is ugly and covers the specific conditions i was in, but am posting it just in case somebody finds it useful. cheers

select 
    REVERSE(
        SUBSTRING(
            reverse_substring, 
            0, 
            CHARINDEX(';', reverse_substring)
        )
    ) 
from 
(
    select 
        msg,
        SUBSTRING(
            REVERSE(msg), 
            CHARINDEX(
                ';', 
                REVERSE(msg), 
                CHARINDEX(
                    ';',
                    REVERSE(msg)
                )+1
            )+1,
            1000
        ) reverse_substring
    from 
    (
        select 'first;second;third;fourth;fifth' msg
    ) a
) b

Answer 20

You can leverage a Number table to do the string parsing.

Create a physical numbers table:

    create table dbo.Numbers (N int primary key);
    insert into dbo.Numbers
        select top 1000 row_number() over(order by number) from master..spt_values
    go

Create test table with 1000000 rows

    create table #yak (i int identity(1,1) primary key, array varchar(50))

    insert into #yak(array)
        select 'a,b,c' from dbo.Numbers n cross join dbo.Numbers nn
    go

Create the function

    create function [dbo].[ufn_ParseArray]
        (   @Input      nvarchar(4000), 
            @Delimiter  char(1) = ',',
            @BaseIdent  int
        )
    returns table as
    return  
        (   select  row_number() over (order by n asc) + (@BaseIdent - 1) [i],
                    substring(@Input, n, charindex(@Delimiter, @Input + @Delimiter, n) - n) s
            from    dbo.Numbers
            where   n <= convert(int, len(@Input)) and
                    substring(@Delimiter + @Input, n, 1) = @Delimiter
        )
    go

Usage (outputs 3mil rows in 40s on my laptop)

    select * 
    from #yak 
    cross apply dbo.ufn_ParseArray(array, ',', 1)

cleanup

    drop table dbo.Numbers;
    drop function  [dbo].[ufn_ParseArray]

Performance here is not amazing, but calling a function over a million row table is not the best idea. If performing a string split over many rows I would avoid the function.

Answer 21

First, create a function (using CTE, common table expression does away with the need for a temp table)

 create function dbo.SplitString 
    (
        @str nvarchar(4000), 
        @separator char(1)
    )
    returns table
    AS
    return (
        with tokens(p, a, b) AS (
            select 
                1, 
                1, 
                charindex(@separator, @str)
            union all
            select
                p + 1, 
                b + 1, 
                charindex(@separator, @str, b + 1)
            from tokens
            where b > 0
        )
        select
            p-1 zeroBasedOccurance,
            substring(
                @str, 
                a, 
                case when b > 0 then b-a ELSE 4000 end) 
            AS s
        from tokens
      )
    GO

Then, use it as any table (or modify it to fit within your existing stored proc) like this.

select s 
from dbo.SplitString('Hello John Smith', ' ')
where zeroBasedOccurance=1

Update

Previous version would fail for input string longer than 4000 chars. This version takes care of the limitation:

create function dbo.SplitString 
(
    @str nvarchar(max), 
    @separator char(1)
)
returns table
AS
return (
with tokens(p, a, b) AS (
    select 
        cast(1 as bigint), 
        cast(1 as bigint), 
        charindex(@separator, @str)
    union all
    select
        p + 1, 
        b + 1, 
        charindex(@separator, @str, b + 1)
    from tokens
    where b > 0
)
select
    p-1 ItemIndex,
    substring(
        @str, 
        a, 
        case when b > 0 then b-a ELSE LEN(@str) end) 
    AS s
from tokens
);

GO

Usage remains the same.

Answer 22

Yet another get n'th part of string by delimeter function:

create function GetStringPartByDelimeter (
    @value as nvarchar(max),
    @delimeter as nvarchar(max),
    @position as int
) returns NVARCHAR(MAX) 
AS BEGIN
    declare @startPos as int
    declare @endPos as int
    set @endPos = -1
    while (@position > 0 and @endPos != 0) begin
        set @startPos = @endPos + 1
        set @endPos = charindex(@delimeter, @value, @startPos)

        if(@position = 1) begin
            if(@endPos = 0)
                set @endPos = len(@value) + 1

            return substring(@value, @startPos, @endPos - @startPos)
        end

        set @position = @position - 1
    end

    return null
end

and the usage:

select dbo.GetStringPartByDelimeter ('a;b;c;d;e', ';', 3)

which returns:

c

Answer 23

I don't believe SQL Server has a built-in split function, so other than a UDF, the only other answer I know is to hijack the PARSENAME function:

SELECT PARSENAME(REPLACE('Hello John Smith', ' ', '.'), 2) 

PARSENAME takes a string and splits it on the period character. It takes a number as its second argument, and that number specifies which segment of the string to return (working from back to front).

SELECT PARSENAME(REPLACE('Hello John Smith', ' ', '.'), 3)  --return Hello

Obvious problem is when the string already contains a period. I still think using a UDF is the best way...any other suggestions?

Answer 24

You can split a string in SQL without needing a function:

DECLARE @bla varchar(MAX)
SET @bla = 'BED40DFC-F468-46DD-8017-00EF2FA3E4A4,64B59FC5-3F4D-4B0E-9A48-01F3D4F220B0,A611A108-97CA-42F3-A2E1-057165339719,E72D95EA-578F-45FC-88E5-075F66FD726C'

-- http://stackoverflow.com/questions/14712864/how-to-query-values-from-xml-nodes
SELECT 
    x.XmlCol.value('.', 'varchar(36)') AS val 
FROM 
(
    SELECT 
    CAST('<e>' + REPLACE(@bla, ',', '</e><e>') + '</e>' AS xml) AS RawXml
) AS b 
CROSS APPLY b.RawXml.nodes('e') x(XmlCol);

If you need to support arbitrary strings (with xml special characters)

DECLARE @bla NVARCHAR(MAX)
SET @bla = '<html>unsafe & safe Utf8CharsDon''tGetEncoded ÄöÜ - "Conex"<html>,Barnes & Noble,abc,def,ghi'

-- http://stackoverflow.com/questions/14712864/how-to-query-values-from-xml-nodes
SELECT 
    x.XmlCol.value('.', 'nvarchar(MAX)') AS val 
FROM 
(
    SELECT 
    CAST('<e>' + REPLACE((SELECT @bla FOR XML PATH('')), ',', '</e><e>') + '</e>' AS xml) AS RawXml
) AS b 
CROSS APPLY b.RawXml.nodes('e') x(XmlCol); 

Answer 25

I devoloped this,

declare @x nvarchar(Max) = 'ali.veli.deli.';
declare @item nvarchar(Max);
declare @splitter char='.';

while CHARINDEX(@splitter,@x) != 0
begin
    set @item = LEFT(@x,CHARINDEX(@splitter,@x))
    set @x    = RIGHT(@x,len(@x)-len(@item) )
     select @item as item, @x as x;
end

the only attention you should is dot '.' that end of the @x is always should be there.

Answer 26

if anyone wants to get only one part of the seperatured text can use this

select * from fromSplitStringSep('Word1 wordr2 word3',' ')

CREATE function [dbo].[SplitStringSep] 
(
    @str nvarchar(4000), 
    @separator char(1)
)
returns table
AS
return (
    with tokens(p, a, b) AS (
        select 
        1, 
        1, 
        charindex(@separator, @str)
        union all
        select
            p + 1, 
            b + 1, 
            charindex(@separator, @str, b + 1)
        from tokens
        where b > 0
        )
        select
            p-1 zeroBasedOccurance,
            substring(
                @str, 
                a, 
                case when b > 0 then b-a ELSE 4000 end) 
            AS s
        from tokens
  )

Answer 27

I use the answer of frederic but this did not work in SQL Server 2005

I modified it and I'm using select with union all and it works

DECLARE @str varchar(max)
SET @str = 'Hello John Smith how are you'

DECLARE @separator varchar(max)
SET @separator = ' '

DECLARE @Splited table(id int IDENTITY(1,1), item varchar(max))

SET @str = REPLACE(@str, @separator, ''' UNION ALL SELECT ''')
SET @str = ' SELECT  ''' + @str + '''  ' 

INSERT INTO @Splited
EXEC(@str)

SELECT * FROM @Splited

And the result-set is:

id  item
1   Hello
2   John
3   Smith
4   how
5   are
6   you

Answer 28

I was looking for the solution on net and the below works for me. Ref.

And you call the function like this :

SELECT * FROM dbo.split('ram shyam hari gopal',' ')

---

SET ANSI_NULLS ON
GO
SET QUOTED_IDENTIFIER ON
GO

CREATE FUNCTION [dbo].[Split](@String VARCHAR(8000), @Delimiter CHAR(1))       
RETURNS @temptable TABLE (items VARCHAR(8000))       
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

Answer 29

What about using string and values() statement?

DECLARE @str varchar(max)
SET @str = 'Hello John Smith'

DECLARE @separator varchar(max)
SET @separator = ' '

DECLARE @Splited TABLE(id int IDENTITY(1,1), item varchar(max))

SET @str = REPLACE(@str, @separator, '''),(''')
SET @str = 'SELECT * FROM (VALUES(''' + @str + ''')) AS V(A)' 

INSERT INTO @Splited
EXEC(@str)

SELECT * FROM @Splited

Result-set achieved.

id  item
1   Hello
2   John
3   Smith

Answer 30

Pure set-based solution using TVF with recursive CTE. You can JOIN and APPLY this function to any dataset.

create function [dbo].[SplitStringToResultSet] (@value varchar(max), @separator char(1))
returns table
as return
with r as (
    select value, cast(null as varchar(max)) [x], -1 [no] from (select rtrim(cast(@value as varchar(max))) [value]) as j
    union all
    select right(value, len(value)-case charindex(@separator, value) when 0 then len(value) else charindex(@separator, value) end) [value]
    , left(r.[value], case charindex(@separator, r.value) when 0 then len(r.value) else abs(charindex(@separator, r.[value])-1) end ) [x]
    , [no] + 1 [no]
    from r where value > '')

select ltrim(x) [value], [no] [index] from r where x is not null;
go

Usage:

select *
from [dbo].[SplitStringToResultSet]('Hello John Smith', ' ')
where [index] = 1;

Result:

value   index
-------------
John    1