If you want to prevent locking your table for an extended period of time you can do this in batches.
--This will ensure that the value of @@ROWCOUNT for the loop will be > 0
select 1
while @@ROWCOUNT > 0
begin
with DeleteList as (select top 1000 columnA from MyTable order by [Clustered Index])
--order by clustered index so the engine should not have to revisit any given page more than neccesary.
delete DeleteList
end
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Need to split a string? Try Jeff Modens splitter http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/Tally+Table/72993/.
Cross Tabs and Pivots, Part 1 – Converting Rows to Columns - http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/T-SQL/63681/
Cross Tabs and Pivots, Part 2 - Dynamic Cross Tabs - http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/Crosstab/65048/
Understanding and Using APPLY (Part 1) - http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/APPLY/69953/
Understanding and Using APPLY (Part 2) - http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/APPLY/69954/