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

You miss the case where there's no underscore in the string, which causes the error. Instead, try:

select
    case CHARINDEX('_', name) when 0 then name
        else SUBSTRING(name, 1, CHARINDEX('_', name) - 1) end firstName,

    case CHARINDEX('_', name) when 0 then name
        else SUBSTRING(name, CHARINDEX('_', name) + 1, LEN(name)) end lastname 
from emp

I assume in the case of a single word, you want to show them as both the first name and last name. You can change that value to whatever you prefer.