SQL Sting Split into Single Column

Question

Very new to SQL but I require some help with something that I am sure is a simple fix.

I have a single column of data within a table called 'Produce' where types of fruit are stored in a column called 'Fruit'. Some values within this column are separated by commas.

Is there an easy way to split the below so that the results come as a single column of unique entries?

E.g. Example Table

Fruit
-----
Apple
Plum
Pear, Mango
Pear

What I am hoping to return is the below:

Fruit
-----
Apple
Plum
Pear
Mango

I have tried to use the string split function but I think I have it completely. Can anyone help provide some explanation as to how to do this, please? I am using T-SQL if that helps.

Thanks in advance.

Possible duplicate of [Turning a Comma Separated string into individual rows](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/5493510/turning-a-comma-separated-string-into-individual-rows) — xQbert, Aug 08 '17 at 20:30

S3S · Answer 1 · 2017-08-08T20:50:31.470

The core problem to fix would be to stop storing your values as comma separated lists. Keep your data normalized. With that being said... everyone needs a good splitter...

declare @table table (Fruit varchar(64))
insert into @table
values
('Apple'),
('Plum'),
('Pear,Mango'),
('Pear')

select distinct
    Item
from
    @table
cross apply
    dbo.DelimitedSplit8K(Fruit,',')

OR, If you are on SQL Server 2016...

select distinct
    Item
from
    @table
cross apply
    string_split(Fruit,',')

THE FUNCTION

SET ANSI_NULLS ON
GO

SET QUOTED_IDENTIFIER ON
GO

CREATE FUNCTION [dbo].[DelimitedSplit8K] (@pString VARCHAR(8000), @pDelimiter CHAR(1))
--WARNING!!! DO NOT USE MAX DATA-TYPES HERE!  IT WILL KILL PERFORMANCE!

RETURNS TABLE WITH SCHEMABINDING AS
RETURN

/* "Inline" CTE Driven "Tally Table" produces values from 1 up to 10,000...
enough to cover VARCHAR(8000)*/

  WITH E1(N) AS (
                 SELECT 1 UNION ALL SELECT 1 UNION ALL SELECT 1 UNION ALL
                 SELECT 1 UNION ALL SELECT 1 UNION ALL SELECT 1 UNION ALL
                 SELECT 1 UNION ALL SELECT 1 UNION ALL SELECT 1 UNION ALL SELECT 1
                ),                          --10E+1 or 10 rows
       E2(N) AS (SELECT 1 FROM E1 a, E1 b), --10E+2 or 100 rows
       E4(N) AS (SELECT 1 FROM E2 a, E2 b), --10E+4 or 10,000 rows max
 cteTally(N) AS (--==== This provides the "base" CTE and limits the number of rows right up front
                     -- for both a performance gain and prevention of accidental "overruns"
                 SELECT TOP (ISNULL(DATALENGTH(@pString),0)) ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDER BY (SELECT NULL)) FROM E4
                ),
cteStart(N1) AS (--==== This returns N+1 (starting position of each "element" just once for each delimiter)
                 SELECT 1 UNION ALL
                 SELECT t.N+1 FROM cteTally t WHERE SUBSTRING(@pString,t.N,1) = @pDelimiter
                ),
cteLen(N1,L1) AS(--==== Return start and length (for use in substring)
                 SELECT s.N1,
                        ISNULL(NULLIF(CHARINDEX(@pDelimiter,@pString,s.N1),0)-s.N1,8000)
                   FROM cteStart s
                )
--===== Do the actual split. The ISNULL/NULLIF combo handles the length for the final element when no delimiter is found.
 SELECT ItemNumber = ROW_NUMBER() OVER(ORDER BY l.N1),
        Item       = SUBSTRING(@pString, l.N1, l.L1)
   FROM cteLen l
;
GO

Jeff Moden Article for Function

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Aug 08 '17 at 23:36

This can be done with pure SQL, no user written functions needed.

SQL Server

WITH
    fruittable
    AS
        (   SELECT 'Apple' fruit, 1 id
         UNION ALL
            SELECT 'Banana,Apple', 2
         UNION ALL
            SELECT 'Tomato,Grapefruit,Apple', 3
         UNION ALL
            SELECT 'Watermelon,Persimmons', 4
          ),
    split (fruit, id, leftover)
    AS
        (SELECT case when len(fruit) = 0 or fruit is null then null else left(fruit + ',',  charindex(',',fruit + ',') -1 ) end AS fruit
              , id
              , case when len(fruit) = 0 or fruit is null then null else right(fruit + ',', len(fruit) - charindex(',',fruit + ',') + 1) end as leftover
           FROM fruittable
         UNION ALL
         SELECT case when len(leftover) = 0 or leftover is null then null else left(leftover,  charindex(',',leftover) - 1) end AS fruit
              , id
              , case when len(leftover) = 0 or leftover is null then null else substring(leftover,  charindex(',',leftover) + 1, len(leftover)) end as leftover
           FROM split
          WHERE fruit IS NOT NULL)
SELECT fruit, id
  FROM split where fruit is not null
  order by fruit, id;

Oracle

WITH
    fruittable
    AS
        (SELECT 'Apple' fruit, 1 id
           FROM DUAL
         UNION ALL
         SELECT 'Banana,Apple', 2
           FROM DUAL
         UNION ALL
         SELECT 'Tomato,Grapefruit,Apple', 3
           FROM DUAL
         UNION ALL
         SELECT 'Watermelon,Persimmons', 4
           FROM DUAL),
    split (fruit, id, leftover)
    AS
        (SELECT SUBSTR (fruit || ',', 1, INSTR (fruit || ',', ',') - 1) AS fruit
              , id
              , SUBSTR (fruit || ',', INSTR (fruit || ',', ',') + 1) AS leftover
           FROM fruittable
         UNION ALL
         SELECT SUBSTR (leftover, 1, INSTR (leftover, ',') - 1) AS fruit
              , id
              , SUBSTR (leftover, INSTR (leftover, ',') + 1) AS leftover
           FROM split
          WHERE fruit IS NOT NULL)
  SELECT fruit, id
    FROM split
   WHERE fruit IS NOT NULL
ORDER BY fruit, id

SQL Sting Split into Single Column

2 Answers2

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