How to Split a String in Sql Server without using a function

It is an usual practice to create a function to split the delimited sting in Sql Server, like the ones explained in the article Split delimited String . But if we are in a situation where you don’t have a permission to create a function, then what is the alternative to split the delimited string? This article explains how we can split a delimited string in Sql Server without needing to create a function.

Let us execute the following script to create the Player table with sample data as shown in the below image.

CREATE TABLE Player
(
Team VARCHAR(50),
Players VARCHAR(800)
)
GO
INSERT INTO Player(Team, Players)
VALUES ('India','Sachin Tendulkar,Shewag,Javagal Srinath'),
('Australia','Ricky Ponting,Michale Clarke'),
('South Africa','AB Deviliers')
GO

Now, we can write a query like below to split the comma delimited players name without using the user defined function.

SELECT Team, Members.Member.value('.','VARCHAR(8000)') Player
FROM
(--Convert delimited string to XML
SELECT Team, CAST('<Players><Player>'
+ REPLACE(Players, ',' , '</Player><Player>')
+ '</Player></Players>' AS XML) AS tempPlayer
FROM Player ) AS tempPlayer
CROSS APPLY tempPlayer.nodes('/Players/Player') Members(Member)

RESULT:

[ALSO READ]

STRING_SPLIT function in Sql Server 2016

How to Split comma or any other character delimited string into a Table in Sql Server