Question

I have a SQL Server database table with a column called resources. Each cell of this column contains a comma-delimited list of integers. So the table data might look like this:

Product_ID    Resources    Condition
1             12,4,253     New
2             4,98,102,99  New
3             245,88       Used
etc....

I want to return the rows where a resource ID number is contained in the resources column. This doesn’t work, but something like this:

SELECT *
FROM   product_table
WHERE  resources CONTAINS 4

If this was working, it would return the rows for product_id 1 and 2 because both of the resources cells in those rows contain the value 4. It would not return product_id 3, even though the resources cell for that row has the number 4 in it, because it’s not the full comma-delimited value.

What is the correct way to do this?

Answer 1

Use the Split function as outlined in this resource:

CREATE FUNCTION Split
(
  @delimited nvarchar(max),
  @delimiter nvarchar(100)
) RETURNS @t TABLE
(
-- Id column can be commented out, not required for sql splitting string
  id int identity(1,1), -- I use this column for numbering splitted parts
  val nvarchar(max)
)
AS
BEGIN
  declare @xml xml
  set @xml = N'<root><r>' + replace(@delimited,@delimiter,'</r><r>') + '</r></root>'

  insert into @t(val)
  select 
    r.value('.','varchar(5)') as item
  from @xml.nodes('//root/r') as records(r)

  RETURN
END
GO

-- Create the test table and insert the test data
create table #test
(
product_id int, 
resources nvarchar(max), 
condition nvarchar(10)
);

insert into #test (product_id, resources, condition)
select 1, '12,4,253', 'new'
union
select 2, '4,98,102,99', 'new'
union 
select 3, '245,88', 'used';

-- Use the Split function and cross apply to grab the data you need

select product_id, val, condition
from #test
cross apply dbo.split(#test.resources,',') split
where val = '4' -- split returns a string so use single quotes