Question

I have a list of objects (created from several text files) in C#.net that I need to store in a SQL2005 database file. Unfortunately, Table-Valued Parameters began with SQL2008 so they won’t help. I found from MSDN that one method is to “Bundle multiple data values into delimited strings or XML documents and then pass those text values to a procedure or statement” but I am rather new to stored procedures and need more help than that. I know I could create a stored procedure to create one record then loop through my list and add them, but that’s what I’m trying to avoid. Thanks.

Input file example (Other files contain pricing and availability):
Matnr   ShortDescription    LongDescription ManufPartNo Manufacturer    ManufacturerGlobalDescr GTIN    ProdFamilyID    ProdFamily  ProdClassID ProdClass   ProdSubClassID  ProdSubClass    ArticleCreationDate CNETavailable   CNETid  ListPrice   Weight  Length  Width   Heigth  NoReturn    MayRequireAuthorization EndUserInformation  FreightPolicyException
10000000    A&D ENGINEERING SMALL ADULT CUFF FOR UA-767PBT  UA-279  A&D ENGINEERING A&D ENG 093764011542    GENERAL General TDINTERNL   TD Internal TDINTERNL   TD Internal 2012-05-13 12:18:43 N       18.000  .350                N   N   N   N
10000001    A&D ENGINEERING MEDIUM ADULT CUFF FOR UA-767PBT UA-280  A&D ENGINEERING A&D ENG 093764046070    GENERAL General TDINTERNL   TD Internal TDINTERNL   TD Internal 2012-05-13 12:18:43 N       18.000  .450                N   N   N   N

Some DataBase File fields:

EffectiveDate           varchar(50)
MfgName                 varchar(500)
MfgPartNbr              varchar(500)
Cost                    varchar(200)
QtyOnHand               varchar(200)

Answer 1

You can split multiple values from a single string quite easily. Say you can bundle the string like this, using a comma to separate “columns”, and a semi-colon to separate “rows”:

foo, 20120101, 26; bar, 20120612, 32

(This assumes that colons and semi-colons can’t appear naturally in the data; if they can, you’ll need to choose other delimiters.)

You can build a split routine like this, which includes an output column that allows you to determine the order the value appeared in the original string:

CREATE FUNCTION dbo.SplitStrings
(
    @List       NVARCHAR(MAX),
    @Delimiter  NVARCHAR(255)
)
RETURNS TABLE
AS
    RETURN (SELECT Number = ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDER BY Number),
        Item FROM (SELECT Number, Item = LTRIM(RTRIM(SUBSTRING(@List, Number, 
        CHARINDEX(@Delimiter, @List + @Delimiter, Number) - Number)))
    FROM (SELECT ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDER BY [object_id])
        FROM sys.all_objects) AS n(Number)
    WHERE Number <= CONVERT(INT, LEN(@List))
        AND SUBSTRING(@Delimiter + @List, Number, 1) = @Delimiter
    ) AS y);
GO

Then you can query it like this (for simplicity and illustration I’m only handling 3 properties but you can extrapolate this for 11 or n):

DECLARE @x NVARCHAR(MAX); -- a parameter to your stored procedure

SET @x = N'foo, 20120101, 26; bar, 20120612, 32';

;WITH x AS 
(
    SELECT ID = s.Number, InnerID = y.Number, y.Item 
    -- parameter and "row" delimiter here:
    FROM dbo.SplitStrings(@x, ';') AS s
    -- output and "column" delimiter here:
    CROSS APPLY dbo.SplitStrings(s.Item, ',') AS y
)
SELECT 
    prop1 = x.Item, 
    prop2 = x2.Item, 
    prop3 = x3.Item
FROM x 
INNER JOIN x AS x2 
ON x.InnerID = x2.InnerID - 1
AND x.ID = x2.ID
INNER JOIN x AS x3
ON x2.InnerID = x3.InnerID - 1
AND x2.ID = x3.ID
WHERE x.InnerID = 1
ORDER BY x.ID;

Results:

prop1   prop2     prop3
------  --------  -------
foo     20120101  26
bar     20120612  32