Comma separted string into columns using SQL Server 2008 R2 - sql-server

Question

I want to insert the bulk values into the table by using stored procedure.
Here is the following table called m1 with two fields:
create table m1
(
cola varchar(50),
colb varchar(50)
);
Procedure m1_test to insert the values into the table:
create procedure m1_test
#stringCola varchar(max),
#stringColb varchar(max)
AS
INSERT INTO m1 values(#stringCola,#stringColb);
GO
The above procedure is fine for inserting single values as shown below:
---EXECUTE SP
EXECUTE m1_test #stringCola = 'A1',#stringColb = 'Z1';
But If I want to insert the more values at a time in single string like shown below:
---EXECUTE SP
EXECUTE m1_test #stringCola = 'A1,A2,A3',#stringColb = 'Z1,Z2,Z3';
The output should be:
cola colb
------------
A1 Z1
A2 Z2
A3 Z3

Answer 1

First you need to create a table valued function which will return the comma separated values in the form of a table.
Implement the below code for the function, which I found here, with a slight modification to return an identity column based on which you will later do a JOIN to get a tuple of the 1st value for column A and the first value for column B (A1, Z1) and so on the 2nd, 3rd etc. :
CREATE FUNCTION Split (#InputString VARCHAR(8000), #Delimiter VARCHAR(50))
RETURNS #Items TABLE (ID INTEGER IDENTITY(1,1), Item VARCHAR(8000))
AS
BEGIN
IF #Delimiter = ' '
BEGIN
SET #Delimiter = ','
SET #InputString = REPLACE(#InputString, ' ', #Delimiter)
END
IF (#Delimiter IS NULL OR #Delimiter = '')
SET #Delimiter = ','
--INSERT INTO #Items VALUES (#Delimiter) -- Diagnostic
--INSERT INTO #Items VALUES (#InputString) -- Diagnostic
DECLARE #Item VARCHAR(8000)
DECLARE #ItemList VARCHAR(8000)
DECLARE #DelimIndex INT
SET #ItemList = #InputString
SET #DelimIndex = CHARINDEX(#Delimiter, #ItemList, 0)
WHILE (#DelimIndex != 0)
BEGIN
SET #Item = SUBSTRING(#ItemList, 0, #DelimIndex)
INSERT INTO #Items VALUES (#Item)
-- Set #ItemList = #ItemList minus one less item
SET #ItemList = SUBSTRING(#ItemList, #DelimIndex+1, LEN(#ItemList)-#DelimIndex)
SET #DelimIndex = CHARINDEX(#Delimiter, #ItemList, 0)
END -- End WHILE
IF #Item IS NOT NULL -- At least one delimiter was encountered in #InputString
BEGIN
SET #Item = #ItemList
INSERT INTO #Items VALUES (#Item)
END
-- No delimiters were encountered in #InputString, so just return #InputString
ELSE INSERT INTO #Items VALUES (#InputString)
RETURN
END -- End Function
GO
---- Set Permissions
--GRANT SELECT ON Split TO UserRole1
--GRANT SELECT ON Split TO UserRole2
--GO
Now, after creating this function, modify your stored procedure to:
CREATE PROCEDURE m1_test #stringCola VARCHAR(max), #stringColb VARCHAR(max)
AS
INSERT INTO m1
SELECT A.Item, B.Item
FROM Split(#stringColA, ',') A
INNER JOIN Split(#stringColB, ',') B ON A.ID = B.ID
GO

Answer 2

As I said in comments this is bad design, but you can do it this way:
INSERT INTO m1 values
SELECT a.d ,
b.d
FROM (SELECT Split.a.value('.', 'VARCHAR(100)') d ,
ROW_NUMBER() OVER ( ORDER BY ( SELECT NULL ) ) rn
FROM (SELECT CAST('<M>' + REPLACE(#stringCola, ',', '</M><M>') + '</M>' AS XML) d) A
CROSS APPLY d.nodes('/M') AS Split ( a )
) a
JOIN
(SELECT Split.a.value('.', 'VARCHAR(100)') d ,
ROW_NUMBER() OVER ( ORDER BY ( SELECT NULL ) ) rn
FROM (SELECT CAST('<M>' + REPLACE(#stringColb, ',', '</M><M>') + '</M>' AS XML) d ) A
CROSS APPLY d.nodes('/M') AS Split ( a )
) b ON a.rn = b.rn