In t-sql my dilemma is that I have to parse a potentially long string (up to 500 characters) for any of over 230 possible values and remove them from the string for reporting purposes. These values are a column in another table and they're all upper case and 4 characters long with the exception of two that are 5 characters long.
Examples of these values are:
USFRI
PROME
AZCH
TXJS
NYDS
XVIV. . . . .
Example of string before:
"Offered to XVIV and USFRI as back ups. No response as of yet."
Example of string after:
"Offered to and as back ups. No response as of yet."
Pretty sure it will have to be a UDF but I'm unable to come up with anything other than stripping ALL the upper case characters out of the string with PATINDEX which is not the objective.
This is unavoidably cludgy but one way is to split your string into rows, once you have a set of words the rest is easy; Simply re-aggregate while ignoring the matching values*:
with t as (
select 'Offered to XVIV and USFRI as back ups. No response as of yet.' s
union select 'Another row AZCH and TXJS words.'
), v as (
select * from (values('USFRI'),('PROME'),('AZCH'),('TXJS'),('NYDS'),('XVIV'))v(v)
)
select t.s OriginalString, s.Removed
from t
cross apply (
select String_Agg(j.[value], ' ') within group(order by Convert(tinyint,j.[key])) Removed
from OpenJson(Concat('["',replace(s, ' ', '","'),'"]')) j
where not exists (select * from v where v.v = j.[value])
)s;
* Requires a fully-supported version of SQL Server.
build a function to do the cleaning of one sentence, then call that function from your query, something like this SELECT Col1, dbo.fn_ReplaceValue(Col1) AS cleanValue, * FROM MySentencesTable. Your fn_ReplaceValue will be something like the code below, you could also create the table variable outside the function and pass it as parameter to speed up the process, but this way is all self contained.
SET ANSI_NULLS ON
GO
SET QUOTED_IDENTIFIER ON
GO
CREATE FUNCTION fn_ReplaceValue(#sentence VARCHAR(500))
RETURNS VARCHAR(500)
AS
BEGIN
DECLARE #ResultVar VARCHAR(500)
DECLARE #allValues TABLE (rowID int, sValues VARCHAR(15))
DECLARE #id INT = 0
DECLARE #ReplaceVal VARCHAR(10)
DECLARE #numberOfValues INT = (SELECT COUNT(*) FROM MyValuesTable)
--Populate table variable with all values
INSERT #allValues
SELECT ROW_NUMBER() OVER(ORDER BY MyValuesCol) AS rowID, MyValuesCol
FROM MyValuesTable
SET #ResultVar = #sentence
WHILE (#id <= #numberOfValues)
BEGIN
SET #id = #id + 1
SET #ReplaceVal = (SELECT sValue FROM #allValues WHERE rowID = #id)
SET #ResultVar = REPLACE(#ResultVar, #ReplaceVal, SPACE(0))
END
RETURN #ResultVar
END
GO
I suggest creating a table (either temporary or permanent), and loading these 230 string values into this table. Then use it in the following delete:
DELETE
FROM yourTable
WHERE col IN (SELECT col FROM tempTable);
If you just want to view your data sans these values, then use:
SELECT *
FROM yourTable
WHERE col NOT IN (SELECT col FROM tempTable);
Related
Just wondering how I might go about adding the ouputted results as a new column to an exsisting table.
What I'm tryng to do is extract the date from a string which is in another column. I have the below code to do this:
Code
CREATE FUNCTION dbo.udf_GetNumeric
(
#strAlphaNumeric VARCHAR(256)
)
RETURNS VARCHAR(256)
AS
BEGIN
DECLARE #intAlpha INT
SET #intAlpha = PATINDEX('%[^0-9]%', #strAlphaNumeric)
BEGIN
WHILE #intAlpha > 0
BEGIN
SET #strAlphaNumeric = STUFF(#strAlphaNumeric, #intAlpha, 1, '' )
SET #intAlpha = PATINDEX('%[^0-9]%', #strAlphaNumeric )
END
END
RETURN ISNULL(#strAlphaNumeric,0)
END
GO
Now use the function as
SELECT dbo.udf_GetNumeric(column_name)
from table_name
The issue is that I want the result to be placed in a new column in an exsisting table. I have tried the below code but no luck.
ALTER TABLE [Data_Cube_Data].[dbo].[DB_Test]
ADD reportDated nvarchar NULL;
insert into [DB].[dbo].[DB_Test](reportDate)
SELECT
(SELECT dbo.udf_GetNumeric(FileNamewithDate) from [DB].[dbo].[DB_Test])
The syntax should be an UPDATE, not an INSERT, because you want to update existing rows, not insert new ones:
UPDATE Data_Cube_Data.dbo.DB_Test -- you don't need square bracket noise
SET reportDate = dbo.udf_GetNumeric(FileNamewithDate);
But yeah, I agree with the others, the function looks like the result of a "how can I make this object the least efficient thing in my entire database?" contest. Here's a better alternative:
-- better, set-based TVF with no while loop
CREATE FUNCTION dbo.tvf_GetNumeric
(#strAlphaNumeric varchar(256))
RETURNS TABLE
AS
RETURN
(
WITH cte(n) AS
(
SELECT TOP (256) n = ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDER BY ##SPID)
FROM sys.all_objects
)
SELECT output = COALESCE(STRING_AGG(
SUBSTRING(#strAlphaNumeric, n, 1), '')
WITHIN GROUP (ORDER BY n), '')
FROM cte
WHERE SUBSTRING(#strAlphaNumeric, n, 1) LIKE '%[0-9]%'
);
Then the query is:
UPDATE t
SET t.reportDate = tvf.output
FROM dbo.DB_Test AS t
CROSS APPLY dbo.tvf_GetNumeric(t.FileNamewithDate) AS tvf;
Example db<>fiddle that shows this has the same behavior as your existing function.
The function
As i mentioned in the comments, I would strongly suggest rewriting the function, it'll perform terribly. Multi-line table value function can perform poorly, and you also have a WHILE which will perform awfully. SQL is a set based language, and so you should be using set based methods.
There are a couple of alternatives though:
Inlinable Scalar Function
SQL Server 2019 can inline function, so you could inline the above. I do, however, assume that your value can only contain the characters A-z and 0-9. if it can contain other characters, such as periods (.), commas (,), quotes (") or even white space ( ), or your not on 2019 then don't use this:
CREATE OR ALTER FUNCTION dbo.udf_GetNumeric (#strAlphaNumeric varchar(256))
RETURNS varchar(256) AS
BEGIN
RETURN TRY_CONVERT(int,REPLACE(TRANSLATE(LOWER(#strAlphaNumeric),'abcdefghigclmnopqrstuvwxyz',REPLICATE('|',26)),'|',''));
END;
GO
SELECT dbo.udf_GetNumeric('abs132hjsdf');
The LOWER is there in case you are using a case sensitive collation.
Inline Table Value Function
This is the better solution in my mind, and doesn't have the caveats of the above.
It uses a Tally to split the data into individual characters, and then only reaggregate the characters that are a digit. Note that I assume you are using SQL Server 2017+ here:
DROP FUNCTION udf_GetNumeric; --Need to drop as it's a scalar function at the moment
GO
CREATE OR ALTER FUNCTION dbo.udf_GetNumeric (#strAlphaNumeric varchar(256))
RETURNS table AS
RETURN
WITH N AS (
SELECT N
FROM (VALUES(NULL),(NULL),(NULL),(NULL)) N(N)),
Tally AS(
SELECT TOP (LEN(#strAlphaNumeric))
ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDER BY (SELECT NULL)) AS I
FROM N N1, N N2, N N3, N N4)
SELECT STRING_AGG(CASE WHEN V.C LIKE '[0-9]' THEN V.C END,'') WITHIN GROUP (ORDER BY T.I) AS strNumeric
FROM Tally T
CROSS APPLY (VALUES(SUBSTRING(#strAlphaNumeric,T.I,1)))V(C);
GO
SELECT *
FROM dbo.udf_GetNumeric('abs132hjsdf');
Your table
You define reportDated as nvarchar; this means nvarchar(1). Your function, however, returns a varchar(256); this will rarely fit in an nvarchar(1).
Define the column properly:
ALTER TABLE [dbo].[DB_Test] ADD reportDated varchar(256) NULL;
If you've already created the column then do the following:
ALTER TABLE [dbo].[DB_Test] ALTER COLUMN reportDated varchar(256) NULL;
I note, however, that the column is called "dated", which implies a date value, but it's a (n)varchar; that sounds like a flaw.
Updating the column
Use an UPDATE statement. Depending on the solution this would one of the following:
--Scalar function
UPDATE [dbo].[DB_Test]
SET reportDated = dbo.udf_GetNumeric(FileNamewithDate);
--Table Value Function
UPDATE DBT
SET reportDated = GN.strNumeric
FROM [dbo].[DB_Test] DBT
CROSS APPLY dbo.udf_GetNumeric(FileNamewithDate);
I need to read a pipe delimited file where we have an array repeating 30 times. I need to access these array of elements and change the sequence and send in the output file.
E.g.
Tanya|1|Pen|2|Book|3|Eraser
Raj|11|Eraser|22|Bottle
In the above example, first field is the Customer name. After that we have an array of items ordered - Order ID and Item name.
Could you please suggest how to read these array elements individually to process these further?
You will be using copy activity in Azure Data Factory pipeline in which the source will be DelimitedText dataset and sink will be JSON dataset. If your source and destination files are located in Azure Blob Storage, create a Linked Service to connect the files with Azure Data Factory.
The source file dataset properties will look like this. You need to select Column Delimiter as Pipe (|).
The sink file with JSON type dataset settings will look like as shown in below. Just mention the output location path where the file will be saved after conversion.
In copy data activity sink tab, select the File pattern as Array of files. Trigger the pipeline.
The sample input and output shown below.
If you can control the output file format then you're better off using two (or three) delimiters, one for the person and the other for the order items. If you can get a third then use that to split the order item from the order line.
Assuming the data format:
Person Name | 1:M [Order]
And each Order is
order line | item name
You can simply ingest the entire row into a single nvarchar(max) column and then use SQL to break out the data you need.
The following is one such example.
declare #tbl table (d nvarchar(max));
insert into #tbl values('Tanya|1|Pen|2|Book|3|Eraser'),('Raj|11|Eraser|22|Bottle');
declare #base table (id int, person varchar(100),total_orders int, raw_orders varchar(max));
declare #output table (id int, person varchar(100),item_id int, item varchar(100));
with a as
(
select
CHARINDEX('|',d) idx
,d
,ROW_NUMBER() over (order by d) as id /*Or newid()*/
from #tbl
), b as
(
select
id
,SUBSTRING(d,0,idx) person
,SUBSTRING(d,idx+1,LEN(d)-idx+1) order_array
from a
), c as
(
select id, person, order_array
,(select count(1) from string_split(order_array,'|')) /2 orders
from b
)
insert into #base (id,person,total_orders,raw_orders)
select id,person,orders,order_array from c
declare #total_persons int = (select count(1) from #base);
declare #person_enu int = 1;
while #person_enu <= #total_persons
BEGIN
declare #total_orders int = (select total_orders from #base where id = #person_enu);
declare #raw_orders nvarchar(max) = (select raw_orders from #base where id = #person_enu);
declare #order_enu int = 1;
declare #i int = 1;
print CONCAT('Person ', #person_enu, '. Total orders: ', #total_orders);
while #order_enu <= #total_orders
begin
--declare #id int = (select value from string_split(#raw_orders,'|',1) where ordinal = #i);
--declare #val varchar(100) = (select value from string_split(#raw_orders,'|',1) where ordinal = #i+1);
--print concat('Will process order ',#order_enu);
--print concat('ID:',#i, ' Value:', #i+1)
--print concat('ID:',#id, ' Value:', #val)
INSERT INTO #output (id,person,item_id,item)
select b.id,b.person,n.value [item_id], v.value [item] from #base b
cross apply string_split(b.raw_orders,'|',1) n
cross apply string_split(b.raw_orders,'|',1) v
where b.id = #person_enu and n.ordinal = #i and v.ordinal = #i+1;
set #order_enu +=1;
set #i+=2;
end
set #person_enu += 1;
END
select * from #output;
I am working on a query that I need to modify so that a string is passed to in(). The view table is being used by some other view table and ultimately by a stored procedure. The string values must be in ' '.
select region, county, name
from vw_main
where state - 'MD'
and building_id in ('101', '102') -- pass the string into in()
The values for the building_id will be entered at the stored procedure level upon its execution.
Please check below scripts which will give you answer.
Way 1: Split CSV value using XML and directly use select query in where condition
DECLARE #StrBuildingIDs VARCHAR(1000)
SET #StrBuildingIDs = '101,102'
SELECT
vm.region,
vm.county,
vm.name
FROM vw_main vm
WHERE vm.state = 'MD'
AND vm.building_id IN
(
SELECT
l.value('.','VARCHAR(20)') AS Building_Id
FROM
(
SELECT CAST('<a>' + REPLACE(#StrBuildingIDs,',','</a><a>') + '</a>') AS BuildIDXML
) x
CROSS APPLY x.BuildIDXML.nodes('a') Split(l)
)
Way 2: Split CSV value using XML, Create Variable Table and use that in where condition
DECLARE #StrBuildingIDs VARCHAR(1000)
SET #StrBuildingIDs = '101,102'
DECLARE #TblBuildingID TABLE(BuildingId INT)
INSERT INTO #TblBuildingID(BuildingId)
SELECT
l.value('.','VARCHAR(20)') AS Building_Id
FROM
(
SELECT CAST('<a>' + REPLACE(#StrBuildingIDs,',','</a><a>') + '</a>') AS BuildIDXML
) x
CROSS APPLY x.BuildIDXML.nodes('a') Split(l)
SELECT
vm.region,
vm.county,
vm.name
FROM vw_main AS vm
WHERE vm.state = 'MD'
AND vm.building_id IN
(
SELECT
BuildingId
FROM #TblBuildingID
)
Way 3: Split CSV value using XML, Create Variable Table and use that in INNER JOIN
Assuming the input string is not end-user input, you can do this. That is, derived or pulled from another table or other controlled source.
DECLARE #in nvarchar(some length) = N'''a'',''b'',''c'''
declare #stmt nvarchar(4000) = N'
select region, county, name
from vw_main
where state = ''MD''
and building_id in ({instr})'
set #stmt = replace(#stmt, N'{instr}', #instr)
exec sp_executesql #stmt=#stmt;
If the input is from an end-user, this is safer:
declare # table (a int, b char)
insert into #(a, b) values (1,'A'), (2, 'B')
declare #str varchar(50) = 'A,B'
select t.* from # t
join (select * from string_split(#str, ',')) s(b)
on t.b = s.b
You may like it better anyway, since there's no dynamic sql involved. However you must be running SQL Server 2016 or higher.
I am trying to remove all the comments from a NVARCHAR value.
I don't know which value I will get to the NVARCHAR variable and I need to remove all the comments that start with -- until the end of the line.
For example:
-- Some Comments
SET NOCOUNT ON;
-- Some Comments
SELECT FirstName FROM dbo.Users WHERE Id = #Id;
After removing the comments it should look like this:
SET NOCOUNT ON;
SELECT FirstName FROM dbo.Users WHERE Id = #Id;
Is there any easy way doing it in T-SQL?
Thanks in advance.
Using ngramsN4k:
CREATE FUNCTION dbo.NGramsN4K
(
#string nvarchar(4000), -- Input string
#N int -- requested token size
)
/****************************************************************************************
Purpose:
A character-level N-Grams function that outputs a contiguous stream of #N-sized tokens
based on an input string (#string). Accepts strings up to 4000 nvarchar characters long.
For more information about N-Grams see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N-gram.
Compatibility:
SQL Server 2008+, Azure SQL Database
Syntax:
--===== Autonomous
SELECT position, token FROM dbo.NGramsN4K(#string,#N);
--===== Against a table using APPLY
SELECT s.SomeID, ng.position, ng.token
FROM dbo.SomeTable s
CROSS APPLY dbo.NGramsN4K(s.SomeValue,#N) ng;
Parameters:
#string = The input string to split into tokens.
#N = The size of each token returned.
Returns:
Position = bigint; the position of the token in the input string
token = nvarchar(4000); a #N-sized character-level N-Gram token
Developer Notes:
1. NGramsN4K is not case sensitive
2. Many functions that use NGramsN4K will see a huge performance gain when the optimizer
creates a parallel execution plan. One way to get a parallel query plan (if the
optimizer does not chose one) is to use make_parallel by Adam Machanic which can be
found here:
sqlblog.com/blogs/adam_machanic/archive/2013/07/11/next-level-parallel-plan-porcing.aspx
3. When #N is less than 1 or greater than the datalength of the input string then no
tokens (rows) are returned. If either #string or #N are NULL no rows are returned.
This is a debatable topic but the thinking behind this decision is that: because you
can't split 'xxx' into 4-grams, you can't split a NULL value into unigrams and you
can't turn anything into NULL-grams, no rows should be returned.
For people who would prefer that a NULL input forces the function to return a single
NULL output you could add this code to the end of the function:
UNION ALL
SELECT 1, NULL
WHERE NOT(#N > 0 AND #N <= DATALENGTH(#string)) OR (#N IS NULL OR #string IS NULL);
4. NGramsN4K is deterministic. For more about deterministic functions see:
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms178091.aspx
Usage Examples:
--===== Turn the string, 'abcd' into unigrams, bigrams and trigrams
SELECT position, token FROM dbo.NGramsN4K('abcd',1); -- unigrams (#N=1)
SELECT position, token FROM dbo.NGramsN4K('abcd',2); -- bigrams (#N=2)
SELECT position, token FROM dbo.NGramsN4K('abcd',3); -- trigrams (#N=3)
--===== How many times the substring "AB" appears in each record
DECLARE #table TABLE(stringID int identity primary key, string nvarchar(100));
INSERT #table(string) VALUES ('AB123AB'),('123ABABAB'),('!AB!AB!'),('AB-AB-AB-AB-AB');
SELECT string, occurances = COUNT(*)
FROM #table t
CROSS APPLY dbo.NGramsN4K(t.string,2) ng
WHERE ng.token = 'AB'
GROUP BY string;
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Revision History:
Rev 00 - 20170324 - Initial Development - Alan Burstein
****************************************************************************************/
RETURNS TABLE WITH SCHEMABINDING AS RETURN
WITH
L1(N) AS
(
SELECT 1 FROM (VALUES -- 64 dummy values to CROSS join for 4096 rows
($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),
($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),
($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),
($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($)) t(N)
),
iTally(N) AS
(
SELECT
TOP (ABS(CONVERT(BIGINT,((DATALENGTH(ISNULL(#string,''))/2)-(ISNULL(#N,1)-1)),0)))
ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDER BY (SELECT NULL)) -- Order by a constant to avoid a sort
FROM L1 a CROSS JOIN L1 b -- cartesian product for 4096 rows (16^2)
)
SELECT
position = N, -- position of the token in the string(s)
token = SUBSTRING(#string,CAST(N AS int),#N) -- the #N-Sized token
FROM iTally
WHERE #N > 0
-- Protection against bad parameter values
AND #N <= (ABS(CONVERT(BIGINT,((DATALENGTH(ISNULL(#string,''))/2)-(ISNULL(#N,1)-1)),0)));
You can solve it using the solution below. This will be limited to NVARCHAR(4000) but I can put together an NVARCHAR(max) version if you need one. Also note that my solution ignores lines that begin with "--" and grabs everything up to "--" where the comment is deeper in. I'm not adressing /* this comment style */ but could be modified to do so.
Solution
-- sample stored proc
declare #storedproc varchar(8000) =
'-- Some Comments
SET NOCOUNT ON;
-- Some Comments
SELECT FirstName -- we only need the first name
FROM dbo.Users WHERE Id = #Id;';
--select #storedproc;
-- Solution
select cleanedProc =
(
select substring(item, 1, isnull(nullif(charindex('--', item),0)-1,nextPos))+br
from
(
select 0 union all
select position from dbo.ngramsN4k(#storedproc,1)
where token = char(10)
) d(position)
cross apply (values (char(10), d.position+1,
isnull(nullif(charindex(char(10), #storedproc, d.position+1),0),8000))
) p(br, startPos, nextPos)
cross apply (values (substring(#storedproc, startPos, nextPos-startPos))) split(item)
where item not like '--%'
order by position
for xml path(''), type
).value('(text())[1]', 'varchar(8000)');
before
-- Some Comments
SET NOCOUNT ON;
-- Some Comments
SELECT FirstName -- we only need the first name
FROM dbo.Users WHERE Id = #Id;
after
SET NOCOUNT ON;
SELECT FirstName
FROM dbo.Users WHERE Id = #Id;
I have approximately 30,000 records where I need to split the Description field and so far I can only seem to achieve this in Excel. An example Description would be:
1USBCP 2RJ45C6 1DVI 1DP 3MD 3MLP HANDS
Below is my Excel function:
=TRIM(MID(SUBSTITUTE($G309," ",REPT(" ",LEN($G309))),((COLUMNS($G309:G309)-1)*LEN($G309))+1,LEN($G309)))
This is then dragged across ten Excel columns, and splits the description field at each space.
I have seen many questions asked about splitting a string in SQL but they only seem to cover one space, not multiple spaces.
There is no easy function in SQL server to split strings. At least I don't know it. I use usually some trick that I found somewhere in the Internet some time ago. I modified it to your example.
The trick is that first we try to figure out how many columns do we need. We can do it by checking how many empty strings we have in the string. The easiest way is lenght of string - lenght of string without empty string.
After that for each string we try to find start and end of each word by position. At the end we cut simply string by start and end position and assign to coulmns. The details are in the query. Have fun!
CREATE TABLE test(id int, data varchar(100))
INSERT INTO test VALUES (1,'1USBCP 2RJ45C6 1DVI 1DP 3MD 3MLP HANDS')
INSERT INTO test VALUES (2,'Shorter one')
DECLARE #pivot varchar(8000)
DECLARE #select varchar(8000)
SELECT
#pivot=coalesce(#pivot+',','')+'[col'+cast(number+1 as varchar(10))+']'
FROM
master..spt_values where type='p' and
number<=(SELECT max(len(data)-len(replace(data,',',''))) FROM test)
SELECT
#select='
select p.*
from (
select
id,substring(data, start+2, endPos-Start-2) as token,
''col''+cast(row_number() over(partition by id order by start) as varchar(10)) as n
from (
select
id, data, n as start, charindex('','',data,n+2) endPos
from (select number as n from master..spt_values where type=''p'') num
cross join
(
select
id, '' '' + data +'' '' as data
from
test
) m
where n < len(data)-1
and substring(odata,n+1,1) = '','') as data
) pvt
Pivot ( max(token)for n in ('+#pivot+'))p'
EXEC(#select)
Here you can find example in SQL Fiddle
I didn't notice that you want to get rid of multiple blank spaces.
To do it please create some function that preprare your data :
CREATE FUNCTION dbo.[fnRemoveExtraSpaces] (#Number AS varchar(1000))
Returns Varchar(1000)
As
Begin
Declare #n int -- Length of counter
Declare #old char(1)
Set #n = 1
--Begin Loop of field value
While #n <=Len (#Number)
BEGIN
If Substring(#Number, #n, 1) = ' ' AND #old = ' '
BEGIN
Select #Number = Stuff( #Number , #n , 1 , '' )
END
Else
BEGIN
SET #old = Substring(#Number, #n, 1)
Set #n = #n + 1
END
END
Return #number
END
After that use the new version that removes extra spaces.
DECLARE #pivot varchar(8000)
DECLARE #select varchar(8000)
SELECT
#pivot=coalesce(#pivot+',','')+'[col'+cast(number+1 as varchar(10))+']'
FROM
master..spt_values where type='p' and
number<=(SELECT max(len(dbo.fnRemoveExtraSpaces(data))-len(replace(dbo.fnRemoveExtraSpaces(data),' ',''))) FROM test)
SELECT
#select='
select p.*
from (
select
id,substring(data, start+2, endPos-Start-2) as token,
''col''+cast(row_number() over(partition by id order by start) as varchar(10)) as n
from (
select
id, data, n as start, charindex('' '',data,n+2) endPos
from (select number as n from master..spt_values where type=''p'') num
cross join
(
select
id, '' '' + dbo.fnRemoveExtraSpaces(data) +'' '' as data
from
test
) m
where n < len(data)-1
and substring(data,n+1,1) = '' '') as data
) pvt
Pivot ( max(token)for n in ('+#pivot+'))p'
EXEC(#select)
I am probably not understanding your question, but all that you are doing in that formula, can be done almost exactly the same in SQL. I see someone has already answered but to my mind, how can it be necessary to do all that when you can do this. I might be wrong. But here goes.
declare #test as varchar(100)
set #test='abcd1234567'
select right(#test,2)
, left(#test,2)
, len(#test)
, case when len(#test)%2>0
then left(right(#test,round(len(#test)/2,0)+1),1)
else left(right(#test,round(len(#test)/2,0)+1),2) end
Results
67 ab 11 2
So right, left, length and mid can all be achieved.
If the spaces are the "substring" dividers, then: I dont remember well the actual syntax for do-while inside selects of sql, neither have i actually done that per se, but I don't see why it should not be possible. If it doesn't work then you need a temporary table and if that does not work you need a cursor. The cursor would be an external loop around this one to fetch and process a single string at a time. Or you can do something more clever. I am just a novice.
declare #x varchar(1)
declare #n integer
declare #i integer
declare #str varchar(100) -- this is your description. Fetch it and assign it. if in a cursor just use column-name
set #x = null
set #n = 0
set #i = 0
while n < len(#str)
while NOT #x = " "
begin
set #x = left(right(#str,n),1)
n = n+1
end
--insert into or update #temptable blablabla here.
Use i and n to locate substring and then left(right()) it out. or you can SELECT it, but that is a messy procedure if the number of substrings are long. Continue with:
set i = n
set #str = right(#str, i) -- this includes the " ". left() it out at will.
end
Now, a final comment, there should perhaps be a third loop checking for if you are at the last "substring" because I see now this code will throw error when it gets to the end. or "add" an empty space at the end to #str, that will also work. But my time is up. This is a suggestion at least.