How to split one column into two columns in SQL Server

Question

I have small question about SQL Server, please tell me how to solve this issue

Table: emp

   id    name
  ---------------
   1    abc_ra         


        

Answer 1

try this:

select 
    case when CHARINDEX('_',name)>0 
         then SUBSTRING(name,1,CHARINDEX('_',name)-1) 
         else name end firstname, 
    CASE WHEN CHARINDEX('_',name)>0 
         THEN SUBSTRING(name,CHARINDEX('_',name)+1,len(name))  
         ELSE NULL END as lastname
from emp

you can use CASE command to control is last name available.

SQL Fiddle

MS SQL Server 2008 Schema Setup:

Query 1:

declare @t table (id int, name  varchar(50))

insert into @t (id,name) values( 1    ,'abc_rao')
insert into @t (id,name) values( 2    ,'nani')
insert into @t (id,name) values( 3    ,'hari_babu')
insert into @t (id,name) values( 4    ,'kalibabu')
insert into @t (id,name) values( 5    ,'ab_tan')

select 
    case when CHARINDEX('_',name)>0 
         then SUBSTRING(name,1,CHARINDEX('_',name)-1) 
         else name end firstname, 
    CASE WHEN CHARINDEX('_',name)>0 
         THEN SUBSTRING(name,CHARINDEX('_',name)+1,len(name))  
         ELSE NULL END as lastname
from @t

Results:

| FIRSTNAME | LASTNAME |
|-----------|----------|
|       abc |      rao |
|      nani |   (null) |
|      hari |     babu |
|  kalibabu |   (null) |
|        ab |      tan |

UPDATED: sqlfiddle added