Splitting Delimited Strings in SQL
A delimited string is a single string containing multiple values separated by a specific character or sequence of characters. Common delimiters include commas (‘,’), semicolons (‘;’), tabs (‘\t’), or any custom character. For example, Imagine having a list of fruits like “apple,banana,cherry” and you want to look at each fruit one by one.
This is where splitting that long string into smaller pieces, or individual items, becomes super handy. Here’s how you can accomplish this using three methods:
- String Functions
- Recursive CTE (Common Table Expression)
- STRING_SPLIT Function
How to Split a Delimited String to Access Individual Items in SQL?
In SQL, dealing with delimited strings is a common task, especially when handling data that are not structured in a traditional tabular format. Whether it’s parsing a list of values separated by commas or any other delimiter, splitting these strings into individual items is crucial for various data manipulation tasks.
In SQL, sometimes we get data that’s all squished together, like a bunch of words separated by commas or other symbols. This article is all about learning how to do just that—take a long string of text and break it into pieces we can easily work with.