SQL Server Split Function Example in 2008 to Split Comma Separated String into Table

Introduction:

Here I will explain simple split function in SQL Server to split comma separated string into table values in SQL Server database or How to split comma separated string with custom split() function in SQL Server.

Description: 

To split comma separated string in SQL Server we need to write custom method for that we need to create one function like as shown below

Custom Split function to split comma separated string into table

   1:  

   2: CREATE FUNCTION dbo.Split(@String nvarchar(4000), @Delimiter 

   3: char(1)) 

   4: RETURNS @Results TABLE (Items nvarchar(4000)) 

   5: AS 

   6: BEGIN 

   7: DECLARE @INDEX INT 

   8: DECLARE @SLICE nvarchar(4000) 

   9: -- HAVE TO SET TO 1 SO IT DOESNT EQUAL Z 

  10: -- ERO FIRST TIME IN LOOP 

  11: SELECT @INDEX = 1 

  12: WHILE @INDEX !=0 

  13: BEGIN 

  14: -- GET THE INDEX OF THE FIRST OCCURENCE OF THE SPLIT 

  15: CHARACTER 

  16: SELECT @INDEX = CHARINDEX(@Delimiter,@STRING) 

  17: -- NOW PUSH EVERYTHING TO THE LEFT OF IT INTO THE SLICE 

  18: VARIABLE 

  19: IF @INDEX !=0 

  20: SELECT @SLICE = LEFT(@STRING,@INDEX - 1) 

  21: ELSE 

  22: SELECT @SLICE = @STRING 

  23: -- PUT THE ITEM INTO THE RESULTS SET 

  24: INSERT INTO @Results(Items) VALUES(@SLICE) 

  25: -- CHOP THE ITEM REMOVED OFF THE MAIN STRING 

  26: SELECT @STRING = RIGHT(@STRING,LEN(@STRING) - @INDEX) 

  27: -- BREAK OUT IF WE ARE DONE 

  28: IF LEN(@STRING) = 0 BREAK 

  29: END 

  30: RETURN 

  31: END

Once we create custom function Split() run sample query like as shown below

   1: SELECT items FROM [dbo].[Split] ('861,739,10,1670', ',') 

Once we run above query we will get output like as shown below

Output