Split column based on ascii value

Question

I have a text field in a table that contains a large string, each part of the string that i want to separate is split by a little square.

When searchin

Answer 1

Hint: You might want to read "update 3" first :-)

And the most important hint: Do not store data in such a format. If you can change this, you really should...

Now some different approaches:

(And there is hint 3 :-) : Next time please tag with the RDBMS including the version. This makes it easier to help you. Less guessing...)

Try it like this

--First I mock-up your issue by replacing the separating blanks with the 27. Now we see the rectangles you were talking about.

DECLARE @YourString VARCHAR(1000)=REPLACE('ABS_ID=1234567 PERSON_ID=1234567 PARTY_ID= ABS_D=123 ABS_T= ABS_TYPE_ID=12345 ABS_ED=123456',' ',CHAR(27));
SELECT @YourString;

--This is the query (needs v2016+):

SELECT A.[key] AS Position
      ,LEFT(Fragment,PosEqual-1) AS ValueName
      ,SUBSTRING(Fragment,PosEqual+1,1000) AS ValueContent
FROM OPENJSON(CONCAT('["',REPLACE(@YourString,CHAR(27),'","'),'"]')) A
CROSS APPLY(SELECT A.[value] AS Fragment
                  ,CHARINDEX('=',A.[value]) AS PosEqual) B;

The result

Position    ValueName   ValueContent
0           ABS_ID      1234567
1           PERSON_ID   1234567
2           PARTY_ID    
3           ABS_D       123
4           ABS_T   
5           ABS_TYPE_ID 12345
6           ABS_ED      123456

The idea in short:

Better than STRING_SPLIT() is a JSON-hack, as the first is not position safe.

Using some simple string methods we can transform your separated string in a JSON array. This array we open using OPENJSON(). This method returns the position as key and the fragment as value.

The APPLY will search for the position of the =.

The SELECT will use the position to read the parts left and rigth from the =.

The result is a classical EAV-list.

UPDATE: If you use a version below v2016...

the following query is similiar in principles, but uses a XML-hack and works with versions down to v2005:

SELECT LEFT(C.Fragment,C.PosEqual-1) AS ValueName
      ,SUBSTRING(C.Fragment,C.PosEqual+1,1000) AS ValueContent
FROM (SELECT CAST('<x>'+REPLACE(@YourString,CHAR(27),'</x><x>')+'</x>' AS XML)) A(CastedToXml)
CROSS APPLY A.CastedToXml.nodes('/x') B(xmlFragment)
CROSS APPLY(SELECT B.xmlFragment.value('text()[1]','nvarchar(1000)') AS Fragment
                  ,CHARINDEX('=',B.xmlFragment.value('text()[1]','nvarchar(1000)')) AS PosEqual) C;

UPDATE 2: One more approach

You might split this in one single go like this:

SELECT CAST('<x><y>' + REPLACE(REPLACE(@YourString,'=','</y><y>'),CHAR(27),'</y></x><x><y>') + '</y></x>' AS XML);

Or this:

SELECT CAST('<x name="' + REPLACE(REPLACE(@YourString,'=','">'),CHAR(27),'</x><x name="') + '</x>' AS XML);

The result is this

<x>
  <y>ABS_ID</y>
  <y>1234567</y>
</x>
<x>
  <y>PERSON_ID</y>
  <y>1234567</y>
</x>
<x>
  <y>PARTY_ID</y>
  <y />
</x>
<x>
  <y>ABS_D</y>
  <y>123</y>
</x>
<x>
  <y>ABS_T</y>
  <y />
</x>
<x>
  <y>ABS_TYPE_ID</y>
  <y>12345</y>
</x>
<x>
  <y>ABS_ED</y>
  <y>123456</y>
</x>

Or this:

<x name="ABS_ID">1234567</x>
<x name="PERSON_ID">1234567</x>
<x name="PARTY_ID" />
<x name="ABS_D">123</x>
<x name="ABS_T" />
<x name="ABS_TYPE_ID">12345</x>
<x name="ABS_ED">123456</x>

UPDATE 3 (this should be on top probably :-) )

This will do the pivoting implicitly:

SELECT CastedToXml.value('(/x[@name="ABS_ID"]/text())[1]','bigint') AS ABS_ID
      ,CastedToXml.value('(/x[@name="PERSON_ID"]/text())[1]','bigint') AS PERSON_ID
      ,CastedToXml.value('(/x[@name="PARTY_ID"]/text())[1]','bigint') AS PARTY_ID
      ,CastedToXml.value('(/x[@name="ABS_D"]/text())[1]','bigint') AS ABS_D
      ,CastedToXml.value('(/x[@name="ABS_T"]/text())[1]','bigint') AS ABS_T
      ,CastedToXml.value('(/x[@name="ABS_TYPE_ID"]/text())[1]','bigint') AS ABS_TYPE_ID
      ,CastedToXml.value('(/x[@name="ABS_ED"]/text())[1]','bigint') AS ABS_ED
FROM
(SELECT CAST('<x name="' + REPLACE(REPLACE(@YourString,'=','">'),CHAR(27),'</x><x name="') + '</x>' AS XML)) A(CastedToXml);

The result

ABS_ID  PERSON_ID   PARTY_ID    ABS_D   ABS_T   ABS_TYPE_ID ABS_ED
1234567 1234567     NULL        123     NULL    12345       123456