How do i split string into 4 columns in ms sql? - sql-server

Question

Example string: " s:6:"module";s:11:"leadCapture"; "
--Note: s is not important.
I tried using string_split:
SELECT value
into temp
FROM STRING_SPLIT('s:6:"module";s:11:"leadCapture";s:6:"action";s:5:"save2";', ';');
select * from temp;
Below is the output:
Row 1: s:6:"module"
Row 2: s:11:"leadCapture"
Row 3: s:6:"action"
Row 4: s:5:"save2"
Expected Output:
6 - column 1,
module - column 2,
11 - column 3,
leadcapture - column 4.

Answer 1

The following code will work starting with MS SQL Server 2016:
declare #s nvarchar(max) = N's:6:"module";s:11:"leadCapture";s:6:"action";s:5:"save2";';
select row_number() over(order by r.Ordinal, v.[key]) as [RN],
v.value as [SubStringValue]
from (
select t.[key] as [Ordinal], t.value as [Value]
from openjson('["' + replace(string_escape(#s, 'json'), ';', '","') + '"]', '$') t
where t.[key] <= 1
) r
cross apply openjson('["' + replace(string_escape(r.Value, 'json'), ':', '","') + '"]', '$') v
where v.[key] > 0
order by RN;
Ugly and convoluted, but at the time of writing this is your only option if you want to do it in pure SQL in an on-prem instance. The alternatives are:
Azure SQL (both SQL Database and Managed Instance) have an improved version of the string_split() function, which accepts an additional parameter, enable_ordinal. This will add an extra column into its output containing ordinal position of substrings within a string. If you use Azure version of SQL, or somehow have SQL Server 2022, this will allow you to avoid having to deal with JSON.
CLR function. Pretty much the best solution when it comes to string manipulation in SQL Server, but can be a pain to maintain.
Cleansing by some ETL tool (SSIS, ADF, AirFlow, whatever) before the data enters the database.