Question

Using Linq to SQL

How does one query and match to include all rows from a secondary table with a column that contains spaces in column?

Table 1:

ID  FAQ    MODELS 
1   faq1   model1 
2   faq2   model2 model1
3   faq3   model3 model2 model1   (Spaces in models column)

Table 2:

ID  MODELS PIC
1   model1 model1pic
2   model2 model2pic
3   model3 modal3pic

Expecting:

faq1 model1 model1pic
faq2 model1 model1pic
faq2 model2 model2pic
faq3 model1 model1pic
faq3 model2 model2pic
faq3 model3 model3pic


SELECT kwfaqtmp.faqmodelnum, kwFAQtmp.issue,
kwfaqtmp.resolution, kwtable4tmp.modelnum,     
kwtable4tmp.prodpic 
FROM kwfaqtmp AS t1 CROSS APPLY dbo.SplitStrings(t1.faqmodelnum, ' ') AS s 
INNER JOIN dbo.kwtable4tmp 
AS t2 ON s.item COLLATE SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS = t2.modelnum 
COLLATE SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS 
ORDER BY t1.issue;

Answer 1

If you can’t fix the design (you shouldn’t be storing multiple pieces of data in a single column, as pointed out elsewhere), you can accomplish this with a split function:

CREATE FUNCTION dbo.SplitStrings
(
  @List  NVARCHAR(MAX),
  @Delim NCHAR(1)
)
RETURNS TABLE
AS
   RETURN ( SELECT DISTINCT Item FROM
       ( SELECT Item = x.i.value('(./text())[1]', 'nvarchar(max)')
         FROM ( SELECT [XML] = CONVERT(XML, '<i>'
         + REPLACE(@List, @Delim, '</i><i>') + '</i>').query('.')
           ) AS a CROSS APPLY [XML].nodes('i') AS x(i) ) AS y
       WHERE Item IS NOT NULL
   );
GO

Now you can say:

SELECT t1.FAQ, t2.MODELS, t2.PIC
FROM dbo.Table1 AS t1
CROSS APPLY dbo.SplitStrings(t1.MODELS, ' ') AS s
INNER JOIN dbo.Table2 AS t2
ON     s.Item COLLATE SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS 
  = t2.Models COLLATE SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS
ORDER BY t1.FAQ;

Results:

FAQ   MODELS  PIC
----  ------  ---------
faq1  model1  model1pic
faq2  model1  model1pic
faq2  model2  model2pic
faq3  model1  model1pic
faq3  model2  model2pic
faq3  model3  modal3pic

The query you tried to use:

 SELECT kwfaqtmp.faqmodelnum, kwFAQtmp.issue,kwfaqtmp.resolution, 
    kwtable4tmp.modelnum, kwtable4tmp.prodpic 
 FROM kwfaqtmp AS t1 
 CROSS APPLY dbo.SplitStrings(t1.faqmodelnum, ' ') AS s 
 INNER JOIN dbo.kwtable4tmp AS t2 
   ON s.item COLLATE SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS 
     = t2.modelnum COLLATE SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS 
 ORDER BY t1.issue;

Is simply not valid. Though it shouldn’t yield the exact error you cite in the comment. How about keeping the t1 / t2 aliases as my original query showed?

 SELECT t1.faqmodelnum, t1.issue, t1.resolution, 
    t2.modelnum, t2.prodpic 
 FROM kwfaqtmp AS t1 
 CROSS APPLY dbo.SplitStrings(t1.faqmodelnum, ' ') AS s 
 INNER JOIN dbo.kwtable4tmp AS t2 
   ON s.item COLLATE SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS 
     = t2.modelnum COLLATE SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS 
 ORDER BY t1.issue;