Question

I need to split a string in sql server and insert the data in a table.
Te string is fixed length, no comma separated. In the string I can have 1 or more records to insert, for example:

id = 2 characters
name = 4 characters

string: 01AAAA02BBBB03CCCC.

In this example I have 3 records to insert (I can have only one record or more in the string)

id Name
01 AAAA
02 BBBB
03 CCCC

I need a way to split this info in two different columns and in three different rows. I was thinking to use BCP utility but I’m not sure, maybe I need to split and generate a file and then use BCP.

Any idea?

Answer 1

The following will handle more than 3 id/name pairs. Note however, that there is no error checking. I leave that to you.

DECLARE @Input NVARCHAR(18)
SET @Input = '01AAAA02BBBB03CCCC'

DECLARE @Data TABLE 
(
    [Id] NCHAR(2),
    [Name] NCHAR(4)
)

WHILE LEN(@Input) > 0
BEGIN

    DECLARE @CurrentData NCHAR(6)
    SET @CurrentData = LEFT(@Input, 6)  

    DECLARE @CurrentId NCHAR(2)
    SET @CurrentId = LEFT(@CurrentData, 2)  

    DECLARE @CurrentName NCHAR(4)
    SET @CurrentName = RIGHT(@CurrentData, 4)   

    INSERT INTO @Data
    (
        [Id],
        [Name]
    )
    SELECT
        @CurrentId,
        @CurrentName

    SET @Input = RIGHT(@Input, LEN(@Input) - 6)

END

SELECT 
    [Id],
    [Name]
FROM
    @Data