Split one column into multiple rows

Can anyone tell me how to accomplish this? A column in my table, in some instances, contains comma separated values. If it does, I need to create new 开发者_StackOverflowrows for these values.

Moreover, as an example, a table contains 1 row and 4 columns Col1 | Col2 | Col3 | Col4 with the following values A | B | C | 1,2,3 respectively. So, Col4 contains the string '1,2,3' and I need to break up the comma separated values and place them on lines of their own so the table would then contain 1 rows where 1 2 and 3 are on lines of their own in Col4.

I think you can do this:

SELECT
    T.id, RIGHT(LEFT(T.csv,Number-1),
    CHARINDEX(',',REVERSE(LEFT(','+T.csv,Number-1))))
FROM
    master..spt_values,
    your_table T
WHERE
    Type = 'P' AND Number BETWEEN 1 AND LEN(T.csv)+1
    AND
    (SUBSTRING(T.csv,Number,1) = ',' OR SUBSTRING(T.csv,Number,1)  = '') 

Code was shamelessly stolen from this site.

You can write a table function, and join your column to it with CROSS APPLY. Here's my version.

CREATE FUNCTION dbo.Splitter(@text nvarchar(max), @separator nvarchar(100))
RETURNS @result TABLE (i int, value nvarchar(max))
AS
BEGIN
    DECLARE @i int
    DECLARE @offset int
    SET @i = 0

    WHILE @text IS NOT NULL
    BEGIN
        SET @i = @i + 1
        SET @offset = charindex(@separator, @text)
        INSERT @result SELECT @i, CASE WHEN @offset > 0 THEN LEFT(@text, @offset - 1) ELSE @text END
        SET @text = CASE WHEN @offset > 0 THEN SUBSTRING(@text, @offset + LEN(@separator), LEN(@text)) END
    END
    RETURN
END

Another one of many string splitting functions out there. This is sort of similar to @Byron Whitlock's answer but instead of using master..spt_values uses a cte to generate a numbers table. SQL Server 2005 onwards.

CREATE TABLE dbo.Table1 
(
    Col1        CHAR(1),
    Col2        CHAR(1),
    Col3        CHAR(1),
    Col4        VARCHAR(50)
)
GO

INSERT INTO dbo.Table1 VALUES ('A','B','C','1,2,3')
GO

SELECT * FROM dbo.Table1;
GO

WITH
L0 AS(SELECT 1 AS c UNION ALL SELECT 1),
L1 AS(SELECT 1 AS c FROM L0 AS A, L0 AS B),
L2 AS(SELECT 1 AS c FROM L1 AS A, L1 AS B),
L3 AS(SELECT 1 AS c FROM L2 AS A, L2 AS B),
Numbers AS(SELECT ROW_NUMBER() OVER(ORDER BY c) AS n FROM L3)
SELECT  Col1, Col2, Col3,        
        LTRIM(RTRIM(SUBSTRING(valueTable.Col4, nums.n, charindex(N',', valueTable.Col4 + N',', nums.n) - nums.n))) AS [Value]
FROM   Numbers AS nums INNER JOIN dbo.Table1 AS valueTable ON nums.n <= CONVERT(int, LEN(valueTable.Col4)) AND SUBSTRING(N',' + valueTable.Col4, n, 1) = N','

I know this is an older post but thought I'd add an update. Tally Table and cteTally table based splitters all have a major problem. They use concatenated delimiters and that kills their speed when the elements get wider and the strings get longer.

I've fixed that problem and wrote an article about it which may be found at he following URL. http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/Tally+Table/72993/

I'll also tell you that a fellow by the name of "Peter" made an improvement even to that code (in the discussion for the article). The article is still interesting and I'll be updating the attachments with Peter's enhancements in the next day or two. Between my major enhancement and the tweek Peter made, I don't believe you'll find a faster T-SQL-Only solution for splitting VARCHAR(8000). I've also solved the problem for this breed of splitters for VARCHAR(MAX) and am in the process of writing an article for that, as well.