How to split a string into variables in sql?

Question

I have a string which looks like BAT | CAT | RAT | MAT I want to split this string into 4 parts and then store them into 4 different variables say .. @a,@b,@c,@

Answer 1

You can split the values and insert them in a table variable, then assign them to your variables like this:

DECLARE @DataSource TABLE
(
    [ID] TINYINT IDENTITY(1,1)
   ,[Value] NVARCHAR(128)
)   

DECLARE @Value NVARCHAR(MAX) = 'BAT | CAT | RAT | MAT'

DECLARE @XML xml = N''

INSERT INTO @DataSource ([Value])
SELECT RTRIM(LTRIM(T.c.value('.', 'NVARCHAR(128)')))
FROM @xml.nodes('//r') T(c)

SELECT [ID] 
      ,[Value]
FROM @DataSource

The result if this query is:

Note, this technique is dynamic - it will split any count of strings split with | and store them in table variable table.