Question

I have a nasty data set:

+----+------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| PK |                                 Medications                                  |
+----+------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|  1 | NAPROXEN, neurontin, DOCUSATE, HYDROCODONE, BACLOFEN, advil                  |
|  2 | celexa, lortab, lyrica, ambien, xanax                                        |
|  3 | adipex                                                                       |
|  4 | opana, roxicodone                                                            |
|  5 | adderall                                                                     |
|  6 | hydrocodone/apap                                                             |
|  7 | NEXIUM, METOPROLOL, lipitor, VERAPAMIL, ASPIRIN, WARFARIN, ambien            |
|  8 | prozac                                                                       |
|  9 | flexeril                                                                     |
| 10 | soma, LITHIUM, MULTI-VITAMIN, fentanyl patch, percocet, PROPANOLOL, tegretol |
+----+------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

Please keep in mind that this is just 2 columns.

What I would like to return is simply a 1 column list of distinct medications across the entire dataset:

NAPROXEN
 neurontin
 DOCUSATE
 HYDROCODONE
 BACLOFEN
 advil
celexa
 lortab
 lyrica
 ambien
 xanax
adipex
opana

What is the best way to go about this?

Thank you so much for your guidance.

Answer 1

DECLARE @Medications TABLE
(
     PK BIGINT PRIMARY KEY IDENTITY(1,1)
    ,Medications NVARCHAR(4000)
)

/* Populate the table with example records*/
INSERT INTO @Medications(Medications) 
VALUES ('NAPROXEN, neurontin, DOCUSATE, HYDROCODONE, BACLOFEN, advil')
      ,('celexa, lortab, lyrica, ambien, xanax   ')
      ,('adipex')
      ,('opana roxicodone')
      ,('adderall')
      ,('hydrocodone/apap')
      ,('NEXIUM,METOPROLOL,lipitor,VERAPAMIL,ASPIRIN,WARFARIN,ambien')
      ,('prozac')
      ,('flexeril')
      ,('soma,LITHIUM,MULTI-VITAMIN,fentanyl patch,percocet,PROPANOLOL,tegretol');

Option 1

select distinct Medication = ltrim(rtrim(O.splitdata ))
from
(
select *,
cast('<X>'+replace(F.Medications,',','</X><X>')+'</X>' as XML) as xmlfilter
from @Medications F
)F1
cross apply
( 
 select fdata.D.value('.','varchar(50)') as splitdata 
 from f1.xmlfilter.nodes('X') as fdata(D)) O
where O.splitdata <> ''
group by O.splitdata

Option 2

SELECT DISTINCT display_term
FROM @Medications
CROSS APPLY sys.dm_fts_parser('"' + Medications + '"', 1033, 0,0)
where display_term NOT LIKE 'nn%'

Option 3

SELECT  DISTINCT
    LTRIM(RTRIM(SUBSTRING(Medications, Number ,CHARINDEX(',', Medications + ',', Number ) - Number))) AS Medication 
FROM @Medications 
JOIN master..spt_values ON Number <= DATALENGTH(Medications) + 1  AND type='P'
AND SUBSTRING(',' + Medications, Number , 1) = ','