How to split a comma-separated value to columns

Question

I have a table like this

Value   String
-------------------
1       Cleo, Smith

I want to separate the comma delimited string into two colu

Answer 1

This function is most fast:

CREATE FUNCTION dbo.F_ExtractSubString
(
  @String VARCHAR(MAX),
  @NroSubString INT,
  @Separator VARCHAR(5)
)
RETURNS VARCHAR(MAX) AS
BEGIN
    DECLARE @St INT = 0, @End INT = 0, @Ret VARCHAR(MAX)
    SET @String = @String + @Separator
    WHILE CHARINDEX(@Separator, @String, @End + 1) > 0 AND @NroSubString > 0
    BEGIN
        SET @St = @End + 1
        SET @End = CHARINDEX(@Separator, @String, @End + 1)
        SET @NroSubString = @NroSubString - 1
    END
    IF @NroSubString > 0
        SET @Ret = ''
    ELSE
        SET @Ret = SUBSTRING(@String, @St, @End - @St)
    RETURN @Ret
END
GO

Example usage:

SELECT dbo.F_ExtractSubString(COLUMN, 1, ', '),
       dbo.F_ExtractSubString(COLUMN, 2, ', '),
       dbo.F_ExtractSubString(COLUMN, 3, ', ')
FROM   TABLE