Question

I have data in a table which looks like this (worth noting its not CSV seperated)

It needs to be split in to single chars

Data
abcde

want to convert it to this

Data
a
b
d
c
e

I have looked on the internet but have not found the answer

Answer 1

CREATE FUNCTION dbo.SplitLetters
(
    @s NVARCHAR(MAX)
)
RETURNS @t TABLE
(
    [order] INT,
    [letter] NCHAR(1)
)
AS
BEGIN
    DECLARE @i INT;
    SET @i = 1;
    WHILE @i <= LEN(@s)
    BEGIN
        INSERT @t SELECT @i, SUBSTRING(@s, @i, 1);
        SET @i = @i + 1;
    END
    RETURN;
END
GO

SELECT [letter]
    FROM dbo.SplitLetters(N'abcdefgh12345 6 7')
    ORDER BY [order];