While loop taking a long time in SQL Server

Question

I have a loop that checks all the names and dates from descript column from table tmp13 and stores them as individual rows in other table (tmp14). The problem is that the while loop is executing for a long time. I don't know how to make it run faster.

Here is my code checking the descript columns for names and date. Descript is a text column and can have multiple names and dates. I want to store those names and dates in separate rows.

DECLARE @Id INT
DECLARE @count INT
DECLARE @product_num INT
DECLARE @REQUESTED VARCHAR(50)
DECLARE @FirstDate VARCHAR(255)
DECLARE @RequestedBy VARCHAR(255)

DECLARE @name NVARCHAR(256)
DECLARE @date NVARCHAR(256)
DECLARE @desc NVARCHAR(256)

DECLARE @dateposition INT
DECLARE @nameposition INT
DECLARE @nameend INT

SELECT @count = MAX(id) 
FROM #TMP13

SET @id = 1;

WHILE (@id <= @count)
BEGIN
    SELCET @desc = descript FROM #TMP13 WHERE Id = @Id
    SELECT @product_num = p_Num FROM #TMP13 WHERE Id = @Id
    SELECT @REQUESTED = REQUESTED FROM #TMP13 WHERE Id = @Id
    SELECT @FirstDate = DATE1 FROM #TMP13 WHERE Id = @Id
    SELECT @RequestedBy = BY1 FROM #TMP13 WHERE Id = @Id


while (patindex('%[0-9][0-9]/[0-9][0-9]/[0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9]%',@desc) > 0)
begin
    set @dateposition = patindex('%[0-9][0-9]/[0-9][0-9]/[0-9][0-9][0-9]%',@desc)
    set @date = SUBSTRING(@desc,@dateposition,10)

    set @nameposition = CHARINDEX('-', @desc)+2
    set @nameend = CHARINDEX(' ', @desc, @nameposition)+1
    set @name = SUBSTRING(@desc,@nameposition,@nameend-@nameposition)

    insert into #TMP14 
    values (@Id,@product_num,@REQUESTED, @FirstDate ,@RequestedBY, @date, @name)

    set @desc = SUBSTRING(@desc,@nameend,1024)  
end

set @id = @id + 1;

end

select * from #tmp14;

---sample table

CREATE TABLE #Tmp13(
p_Num             INTEGER  NOT NULL PRIMARY KEY 
REQUESTED          varchar(50),
DATE1            VARCHAR(50),   
BY1              VARCHAR(50),
DESCRIPT         TEXT

);

INSERT INTO #tmp13( p_Num , REQUESTED, DATE1, BY1 , DESCRIPT) VALUES 
(100,'John','5/30/2017','James','05/30/2017 12:25am Eastern Standard Time - 
Mjames reported changes in the pages 05/30/2017 10:35AM JRachael agreed to 
work on the report and report to James 05/30/2017 10:00 AM James reports 
errors in page.',NULL);

INSERT INTO Table_Tasks(WO_NUM,Opendate,ClosedDate,Note) VALUES 
(200,'John','6/1/2017','Rachael','06/1/2017 3:20PM Eastern Standard Time -  
Rsubramaniam reported phone is not functional 06/1/2017 4:00PM Service took 
the phone and replaced it with new one');

OUTPUT

 Id  product_num REQUESTED FirstDate  RequestedBY date         name    date  
                                                                        Name 

 1   100          John      5/30/2017  james      5/30/2017 mjames  5/30/2017 jRachael

Answer 1

While loops will be slow because that's what happens when you use procedural logic to develop in a declarative programming language. For this you can use patternSplitCM. There are issues with your sample data but this should get you what you need.

SELECT t.p_Num,
       t.REQUESTED,
       t.date1,
       t.BY1,
       parsedDate1 = MAX(CASE WHEN s.ItemNumber = 1 THEN s.Item END),
       parsedDate2 = MAX(CASE WHEN s.ItemNumber > 1 THEN s.Item END)
FROM   #Tmp13 AS t
CROSS 
APPLY    dbo.patternSplitCM(t.DESCRIPT, '[0-9/]') AS s
WHERE    s.[Matched] = 1 AND TRY_CAST(s.item AS DATE) IS NOT NULL
GROUP BY t.p_Num,t.REQUESTED, t.date1,t.BY1

Results:

p_Num       REQUESTED    date1        BY1       parsedDate1  parsedDate2
----------- ------------ ------------ --------- ------------ ------------
100         John         5/30/2017    James     05/30/2017   05/30/2017
200         John         6/1/2017     Rachael   06/1/2017    06/1/2017

Lastly, for optimal performance you want an index on the columns p_Num,REQUESTED,DATE1,BY1 to support the GROUP BY clause. The index would look something like:

CREATE UNIQUE NONCLUSTERED INDEX uq_xxx ON #Tmp13(p_Num,REQUESTED,DATE1,BY1) 
--INCLUDE (DESCRIPT); -- if you can change this to VARCHAR(8000) or VARCHAR(max)

Also note that this will likely run faster with a parallel execution plan. For that you can use TRACEFLAG 8649 or Adam Machanic's make_parallel().

Answer 2

Some speed improvements set variables using single select instead of multiple select

SELCET @desc = descript,  @product_num = p_Num ,  @REQUESTED = REQUESTED  , @FirstDate = DATE1,  @RequestedBy = BY1  FROM #TMP13 WHERE Id = @Id

Remove Text data type (deprecated), use varchar(max)

CREATE TABLE #Tmp13(
p_Num             INTEGER  NOT NULL PRIMARY KEY 
REQUESTED          varchar(50),
DATE1            VARCHAR(50),   
BY1              VARCHAR(50),
DESCRIPT        varchar(max) --TEXT
);

Use varchar in place of nvarchar if possible.(@desc variable)

Do not repeat patindex call in loop

set @dateposition=999999--loop start
while (@dateposition > 0)
begin
    set @dateposition = patindex('%[0-9][0-9]/[0-9][0-9]/[0-9][0-9][0-9]%',@desc)
    if(@dateposition>0)begin
    ....
    end
end

Answer 3

Convert the nested loops into two CROSS JOINED SELECTS and use it to insert values. The overall structure will be be something like this

INSERT INTO #TMP14 
    (Id, product_num, REQUESTED, FirstDate , RequestedBY, date, name)
SELECT ...
CROSS JOIN
SELECT ...

Now you have to turn the outer loop which generates a sequence of numbers into one of these SELECT statements, and the inner loop which results from a string split into the other SELECT statements.

This SO question has several answers to the first problem: How to generate a range of numbers between two numbers?.

This SO question has answers to the second problem: Turning a Comma Separated string into individual rows.

SQL-Server and database servers in general are highly optimized query engines, but are not very good in manipulating tables in loops.