SQL Server : Split string to row

Question

How to turn data from below:

CODE COMBINATION   USER
1111.111.11.0      KEN; JIMMY
666.778.0.99       KEN
888.66.77.99       LIM(JIM); JIMMY

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Answer 1

If your [USER] column only has one semicolon you don't need a "split string" function at all; you could use CROSS APPLY like this:

-- Your Sample data 
DECLARE @table TABLE (CODE_COMBINATION varchar(30), [USER] varchar(100));
INSERT @table
VALUES ('1111.111.11.0', 'KEN; JIMMY'), ('666.778.0.99', 'XKEN'),
       ('888.66.77.99','LIM(JIM); JIMMY');

-- Solution using only CROSS APPLY
SELECT CODE_COMBINATION, [USER] = LTRIM(s.s)
FROM @table t
CROSS APPLY (VALUES (CHARINDEX(';',t.[USER]))) d(d)
CROSS APPLY 
(
  SELECT SUBSTRING(t.[USER], 1, ISNULL(NULLIF(d.d,0),1001)-1)
  UNION ALL
  SELECT SUBSTRING(t.[USER], d.d+1, 1000)
  WHERE d.d > 0
) s(s);

If you do need a pre SQL Server 2016 "split string" function I would strongly suggest using Jeff Moden's DelimitedSplit8k or Eirikur Eiriksson's DelimitedSplit8K_LEAD. Both of these will outperform an XML-based or recursice CTE "split string" function.