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title STRING_SPLIT (Transact-SQL) | Microsoft Docs
ms.custom
ms.date 11/27/2018
ms.prod sql
ms.prod_service database-engine, sql-database
ms.reviewer
ms.technology t-sql
ms.topic language-reference
f1_keywords
STRING_SPLIT
STRING_SPLIT_TSQL
dev_langs
TSQL
helpviewer_keywords
STRING_SPLIT function
ms.assetid 3273dbf3-0b4f-41e1-b97e-b4f67ad370b9
author MashaMSFT
ms.author mathoma
manager craigg

STRING_SPLIT (Transact-SQL)

[!INCLUDEtsql-appliesto-ss2016-asdb-xxxx-xxx-md]

[!div class="nextstepaction"] Please help improve SQL Server docs!

A table-valued function that splits a string into rows of substrings, based on a specified separator character.

Compatibility level 130

STRING_SPLIT requires that the compatibility level be at least 130. When the level is less than 130, SQL Server is unable to find the STRING_SPLIT function.

To change the compatibility level of a database, refer to View or Change the Compatibility Level of a Database.

Topic link icon Transact-SQL Syntax Conventions

Syntax

STRING_SPLIT ( string , separator )

Arguments

string
Is an expression of any character type (for example, nvarchar, varchar, nchar, or char).

separator
Is a single character expression of any character type (for example, nvarchar(1), varchar(1), nchar(1), or char(1)) that is used as separator for concatenated substrings.

Return Types

Returns a single-column table whose rows are the substrings. The name of the column is value. Returns nvarchar if any of the input arguments are either nvarchar or nchar. Otherwise returns varchar. The length of the return type is the same as the length of the string argument.

Remarks

STRING_SPLIT inputs a string that has delimited substrings, and inputs one character to use as the delimiter or separator. STRING_SPLIT outputs a single-column table whose rows contain the substrings. The name of the output column is value. The sort order of the output rows matches the order of the substrings in the input string. Of course, you can override the final sort order by using an ORDER BY clause on the SELECT statement (ORDER BY value).

Empty zero-length substrings are present when the input string contains two or more consecutive occurrences of the delimiter character. Empty substrings are treated the same as are plain substrings. Of course, you can filter out any rows that contain the empty substring by using the WHERE clause (WHERE value <> ''). If the input string is NULL, the STRING_SPLIT table-valued function returns an empty table.

As an example, the following SELECT statement uses the space character as the separator:

SELECT value FROM STRING_SPLIT('Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet.', ' ');

The preceding SELECT returns following result table:

value
Lorem
ipsum
dolor
sit
amet.
 

Examples

A. Split comma-separated value string

Parse a comma separated list of values and return all non-empty tokens:

DECLARE @tags NVARCHAR(400) = 'clothing,road,,touring,bike'  
  
SELECT value  
FROM STRING_SPLIT(@tags, ',')  
WHERE RTRIM(value) <> '';

STRING_SPLIT will return empty string if there is nothing between separator. Condition RTRIM(value) <> '' will remove empty tokens.

B. Split comma-separated value string in a column

Product table has a column with comma-separate list of tags shown in the following example:

ProductId Name Tags
1 Full-Finger Gloves clothing,road,touring,bike
2 LL Headset bike
3 HL Mountain Frame bike,mountain

Following query transforms each list of tags and joins them with the original row:

SELECT ProductId, Name, value  
FROM Product  
    CROSS APPLY STRING_SPLIT(Tags, ',');

[!INCLUDEssResult]

ProductId Name value
1 Full-Finger Gloves clothing
1 Full-Finger Gloves road
1 Full-Finger Gloves touring
1 Full-Finger Gloves bike
2 LL Headset bike
3 HL Mountain Frame bike
3 HL Mountain Frame mountain

C. Aggregation by values

Users must create a report that shows the number of products per each tag, ordered by number of products, and to filter only the tags with more than two products.

SELECT value as tag, COUNT(*) AS [Number of articles]  
FROM Product  
    CROSS APPLY STRING_SPLIT(Tags, ',')  
GROUP BY value  
HAVING COUNT(*) > 2  
ORDER BY COUNT(*) DESC;

D. Search by tag value

Developers must create queries that find articles by keywords. They can use following queries:

To find products with a single tag (clothing):

SELECT ProductId, Name, Tags  
FROM Product  
WHERE 'clothing' IN (SELECT value FROM STRING_SPLIT(Tags, ','));

Find products with two specified tags (clothing and road):

  
SELECT ProductId, Name, Tags  
FROM Product  
WHERE EXISTS (SELECT *  
    FROM STRING_SPLIT(Tags, ',')  
    WHERE value IN ('clothing', 'road');

E. Find rows by list of values

Developers must create a query that finds articles by a list of IDs. They can use following query:

SELECT ProductId, Name, Tags  
FROM Product  
JOIN STRING_SPLIT('1,2,3',',')   
    ON value = ProductId;

This is a replacement for a common anti-pattern, such as creating a dynamic SQL string in application layer or [!INCLUDEtsql], or by using LIKE operator:

SELECT ProductId, Name, Tags  
FROM Product  
WHERE ',1,2,3,' LIKE '%,' + CAST(ProductId AS VARCHAR(20)) + ',%';

See Also

LEFT (Transact-SQL)
LTRIM (Transact-SQL)
RIGHT (Transact-SQL)
RTRIM (Transact-SQL)
SUBSTRING (Transact-SQL)
TRIM (Transact-SQL)
String Functions (Transact-SQL)