[SOLVED] Split a string with no delimiters into columns

Split a string with no delimiters into columns

I need to split a string in a column into one character each into it's own column in SQL Server 2012.

Example: if I have a column with 'ABCDE', I need to split it into 'A', 'B', 'C', 'D', 'E', with each of these into their own columns.

The length of the column to be split may vary, so I need this to be as dynamic as possible.

My question is different from the other post (Can Mysql Split a column?) since mine doesn't have any delimiters. Thanks

Solution

You can do this like this:

DECLARE @t TABLE(id int, n VARCHAR(50))
INSERT INTO @t VALUES
(1, 'ABCDEF'),
(2, 'EFGHIJKLMNOPQ')


;WITH cte AS
(SELECT id, n, SUBSTRING(n, 1, 1) c, 1 AS ind FROM @t
 UNION ALL 
 SELECT id, n, SUBSTRING(n, ind + 1, 1), ind + 1 FROM cte WHERE LEN(n) > ind
)

SELECT *
FROM cte 
PIVOT (MAX(c) FOR ind IN([1],[2],[3],[4],[5],[6],[7],[8],[9],[10],[12],[13],[14],[15])) p

Output:

id  n               1   2   3   4   5   6   7    8    9    10   12   13   14    15
1   ABCDEF          A   B   C   D   E   F   NULL NULL NULL NULL NULL NULL NULL  NULL
2   EFGHIJKLMNOPQ   E   F   G   H   I   J   K    L    M    N    P    Q    NULL  NULL

Here is dynamic version:

DECLARE @l INT, @c VARCHAR(MAX) = ''
SELECT @l = MAX(LEN(n)) FROM PivotTable

WHILE @l > 0
BEGIN
 SET @c = ',[' + CAST(@l AS VARCHAR(MAX)) + ']' + @c
 SET @l = @l - 1
END

SET @c = STUFF(@c, 1, 1,'')

DECLARE @s NVARCHAR(MAX) = '
;WITH cte AS
(SELECT id, n, SUBSTRING(n, 1, 1) c, 1 AS ind FROM PivotTable
 UNION ALL 
 SELECT id, n, SUBSTRING(n, ind + 1, 1), ind + 1 FROM cte WHERE LEN(n) > ind
)

SELECT *
FROM cte 
PIVOT (MAX(c) FOR ind IN(' + @c + ')) p'

EXEC (@s)