Optimization: DE-Delimiting a Semi Colon Delimited List

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Optimization: DE-Delimiting a Semi Colon Delimited List

huston.dunlap

SSCommitted

Points: 1551
More actions
April 29, 2010 at 5:28 pm

#218348

I'm taking some of my old queries, and I'm practicing ways to make them more set based to improve my SQL thinking.

Here is some simple code I have used forever to take a table with a delimited list and put each entry into its own row.

It works well, but I'm sure you experts can help me turn it into a true set based query as I'm having problems coming up with better logic. Here's the code I currently use:

WHILE EXISTS(SELECT TOP 1 '' FROM #LEGACYDOCS WHERE CHARINDEX(';',LEGACY_BEGDOC) <> 0)
BEGIN INSERT INTO #LEGACYDOCS SELECT SUBSTRING(LEGACY_BEGDOC,1,CHARINDEX(';',LEGACY_BEGDOC)-1) FROM #LEGACYDOCS WHERE CHARINDEX(';',LEGACY_BEGDOC) <> 0 UPDATE #LEGACYDOCS SET LEGACY_BEGDOC = SUBSTRING(LEGACY_BEGDOC,CHARINDEX(';',LEGACY_BEGDOC)+1,10000) WHERE CHARINDEX(';',LEGACY_BEGDOC) <> 0
END

And here's an example table

LEGACY_BEGDOC

BOB

Jim;Billy;Greg

Tim;Clinton

Sam

That would be converted to this:

Bob

Jim

Billy

Greg

Tim

Clinton

Sam

Any help would be appreciated

Viewing 9 posts - 1 through 8 (of 8 total)

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WayneS SSC Guru Points: 95405 More actions · Answer 1

Use this function:

CREATE FUNCTION [dbo].[DelimitedSplit] (



@list varchar(max),

@Delimiter char(1)

)

RETURNS TABLE

AS

RETURN

-- first, need to break down into separate items.

-- See Jeff Moden's article The "Numbers" or "Tally" Table: What it is and how it replaces a loop.

-- at http://qa.sqlservercentral.com/articles/T-SQL/62867/ for how a tally table can split strings apart.

WITH Tens      (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 ),

     Thousands (N) AS (SELECT 1 FROM Tens t1 CROSS JOIN Tens t2 CROSS JOIN Tens t3),

     Millions  (N) AS (SELECT 1 FROM Thousands t1 CROSS JOIN Thousands t2),

     Tally     (N) AS (SELECT ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDER BY (SELECT 0)) FROM Millions),

     ItemSplit (ItemOrder, Item) AS (

                SELECT N,

                       RTRIM(LTRIM(SUBSTRING(@Delimiter + @list + @Delimiter,N+1,

                             CHARINDEX(@Delimiter,@Delimiter + @list + @Delimiter,N+1)-N-1)))

                  FROM Tally

                 WHERE N < LEN(@Delimiter + @list + @Delimiter)

                   AND SUBSTRING(@Delimiter + @list + @Delimiter,N,1) = @Delimiter

          )

SELECT ItemID = ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDER BY ItemOrder),

       Item

  FROM ItemSplit

GO

And call it like so:

DECLARE @test-2 TABLE (ID int IDENTITY, Col1 varchar(max))



INSERT INTO @test-2

SELECT 'BOB' UNION ALL

SELECT 'Jim;Billy;Greg' UNION ALL

SELECT 'Tim;Clinton' UNION ALL

SELECT 'Sam'

select t1.ID,

       ds.*

  from @test-2 t1

 CROSS

 APPLY dbo.DelimitedSplit(t1.Col1, ';') ds

Edit: corrected name misspelling

Wayne
Microsoft Certified Master: SQL Server 2008
Author - SQL Server T-SQL Recipes

If you can't explain to another person how the code that you're copying from the internet works, then DON'T USE IT on a production system! After all, you will be the one supporting it!

Links:
For better assistance in answering your questions
Performance Problems
Common date/time routines
Understanding and Using APPLY Part 1 & Part 2

dmoldovan SSCertifiable Points: 6334 More actions · Answer 2

dmoldovan

SSCertifiable

Points: 6334

April 30, 2010 at 5:31 am

#1160321

See if this helps

http://www.sommarskog.se/arrays-in-sql-2005.html

huston.dunlap SSCommitted Points: 1551 More actions · Answer 3

huston.dunlap

SSCommitted

Points: 1551

April 30, 2010 at 5:29 pm

#1160813

Thanks guys. I just got exposed recently to the concept of Tally Tables so I took a look again and it will provide exactly what I need. Thank you!

Paul White SSC Guru Points: 150457 More actions · Answer 4

Nine times out of ten a SQLCLR solution is faster than the Tally table and uses fewer resources:

This by MVP Adam Machanic:

http://sqlblog.com/blogs/adam_machanic/archive/2009/04/28/sqlclr-string-splitting-part-2-even-faster-even-more-scalable.aspx

Performance comparison:

http://florianreischl.blogspot.com/2009/09/high-performance-string-split-functions.html

Sample code:



CREATE  ASSEMBLY Utility

        AUTHORIZATION dbo

FROM    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WITH    PERMISSION_SET = SAFE

GO

CREATE  FUNCTION dbo.SplitString_Multi

        (

        @Input NVARCHAR(MAX),

        @Delimiter NVARCHAR(255)

        )

RETURNS TABLE

        (

	    item    NVARCHAR(4000) NULL

        )

AS

EXTERNAL NAME Utility.UserDefinedFunctions.SplitString_Multi

GO

SELECT  SSM.item

FROM dbo.SplitString_Multi(N'ABC,DEF,GH,I,JKL,MN,OPQRS,T,UV,WXY,Z', N',') SSM;

Paul White
SQLPerformance.com
SQLkiwi blog
@SQL_Kiwi

Jeff Moden SSC Guru Points: 1000539 More actions · Answer 5

Paul White NZ (5/3/2010)

Nine times out of ten a SQLCLR solution is faster than the Tally table and uses fewer resources:

... for string splits.

--Jeff Moden

RBAR is pronounced "ree-bar" and is a "Modenism" for Row-By-Agonizing-Row.
First step towards the paradigm shift of writing Set Based code:
________Stop thinking about what you want to do to a ROW... think, instead, of what you want to do to a COLUMN.
"Change is inevitable... change for the better is not".

Helpful Links:
How to post code problems
How to Post Performance Problems
Create a Tally Function (fnTally)
Intro to Tally Tables and Functions

Paul White SSC Guru Points: 150457 More actions · Answer 6

Jeff Moden (5/3/2010)

Paul White NZ (5/3/2010)

Nine times out of ten a SQLCLR solution is faster than the Tally table and uses fewer resources:

... for string splits.

Yes 🙂

There are plenty of other problems where a Tally table solution is fastest - it's all about using the right tool for the job.

Paul White
SQLPerformance.com
SQLkiwi blog
@SQL_Kiwi

Jeff Moden SSC Guru Points: 1000539 More actions · Answer 7

Paul White NZ (5/3/2010)

Jeff Moden (5/3/2010)

Paul White NZ (5/3/2010)

Nine times out of ten a SQLCLR solution is faster than the Tally table and uses fewer resources:

... for string splits.

Yes 🙂

There are plenty of other problems where a Tally table solution is fastest - it's all about using the right tool for the job.

Heh... sorry... I was being a bit of an "SA".... I 100% agree about the right tool for the right job. I just didn't want folks to think that either a SQLCLR solution or a Tally table was a panacea.

--Jeff Moden

RBAR is pronounced "ree-bar" and is a "Modenism" for Row-By-Agonizing-Row.
First step towards the paradigm shift of writing Set Based code:
________Stop thinking about what you want to do to a ROW... think, instead, of what you want to do to a COLUMN.
"Change is inevitable... change for the better is not".

Helpful Links:
How to post code problems
How to Post Performance Problems
Create a Tally Function (fnTally)
Intro to Tally Tables and Functions

Paul White SSC Guru Points: 150457 More actions · Answer 8

Jeff Moden (5/4/2010)

Heh... sorry... I was being a bit of an "SA".... I 100% agree about the right tool for the right job. I just didn't want folks to think that either a SQLCLR solution or a Tally table was a panacea.

I didn't interpret it that way - I thought you were very restrained actually!

You were right to pick me up on that - it did sound like I was saying that SQLCLR routines are always faster than T-SQL using Tally tables, which is certainly not even remotely the case 😎

Paul White
SQLPerformance.com
SQLkiwi blog
@SQL_Kiwi