T-SQL: Separate String Into Multiple Columns

Question

Ex.

Column 1:
| word1 word2 word3 word4 |

to

 Col 1:  Col 2:  Col 3:  Col 4:
| word1 | word2 | word3 | word |

Is it possible to separate different words or phrases from a string into multiple columns? All words and phrases in the strings are usually separated by double spaces, nothing else. Is there a pre-defined function I can use already available from SQL Server like CAST or INTERSECT, or do I have to write my own?

Answer 1

here is a dynamic sql version. of John's in case you don't know the maximum number of words. Key techniques to accomplish what you want would be split string and pivot (or conditional aggregation). Because you are kind of doing both at once John's method is a nice shortcut.

IF OBJECT_ID('tempdb..#TblName') IS NOT NULL
    BEGIN
        DROP TABLE #TblName
    END

CREATE TABLE #TblName (
    ID INT IDENTITY(1,1)
    ,String VARCHAR(500)
)

INSERT INTO #TblName VALUES ('word1  word2  word3  word4'),('abcd  efgh  ijkl')

DECLARE @NumWords INT

SELECT @NumWords = ISNULL(MAX((LEN(String) - LEN(REPLACE(String,'  ','')))/2 + 1), 0)
FROM
    #TblName

DECLARE @i INT = 1
DECLARE @SQL NVARCHAR(MAX)

SET @SQL = '
SELECT
    t.Id
    ,t.String
    ,c.*
FROM
    #TblName t 
    CROSS APPLY (
       SELECT

          '
WHILE @i <= @NumWords
BEGIN
    SET @SQL = @SQL
             + IIF(@i > 1,', ','')
             + 'Column' + CAST(@i AS NVARCHAR(MAX)) + '1 = x.value (''/x[' + CAST(@I AS NVARCHAR(MAX)) + ']'',''varchar(max)'')'

    SET @i = @i + 1
END

SET @SQL = @SQL + '
       FROM
          (SELECT CAST(''<x>'' + REPLACE(String,''  '',''</x><x>'') + ''</x>'' as XML) x) a
    ) c'


EXECUTE (@SQL)