Group by sql query on comma joined column

Question

My table structure is like below, "Mail" column can contain multiple email joined by comma

Data(int)

Mail(v

Answer 1

String splitting is faster using only CHARINDEX without XML or CTE.

Sample table

create table #tmp ([Data] int, [Mail] varchar(200))
insert #tmp SELECT 1,'m1@gmail.com,m2@hotmail.com,other, longer@test, fifth'
UNION ALL   SELECT 2,'m2@hotmail.com,m3@test.com'
UNION ALL   SELECT 3,'m3@single.com'
UNION ALL   SELECT 4,''
UNION ALL   SELECT 5,null

The query

select single, count(*) [Count]
from
(
    select ltrim(rtrim(substring(t.mail, v.number+1,
        isnull(nullif(charindex(',',t.mail,v.number+1),0)-v.number-1,200)))) single
    from #tmp t
    inner join master..spt_values v on v.type='p'
        and v.number <= len(t.Mail)
        and (substring(t.mail,v.number,1) = ',' or v.number=0)
) X
group by single

The only parts you supply are

• #tmp: your table name
• #mail: the column name