The parsing isn't so bad if you use a pattern splitter function and all of your constrains are like this IN type.
WITH CheckConstraint ([definition]) AS (
select 'myColumn in (''1D'', ''2D'', ''3D'', ''4D''))'
),
PatternSplit AS
(
SELECT [definition], itemnumber, item, [matched]
FROM CheckConstraint
CROSS APPLY dbo.PatternSplitCM([definition], '['']')
)
SELECT b.Item
FROM PatternSplit a
INNER JOIN PatternSplit b ON a.ItemNumber + 1 = b.ItemNumber
WHERE a.Item='''' AND b.Item LIKE '%[a-zA-Z0-9]%';
Refer to the 4th link in my signature for the PatternSplitCM FUNCTION code.
My thought question: Have you ever been told that your query runs too fast?
My advice:
INDEXing a poor-performing query is like putting sugar on cat food. Yeah, it probably tastes better but are you sure you want to eat it?
The path of least resistance can be a slippery slope. Take care that fixing your fixes of fixes doesn't snowball and end up costing you more than fixing the root cause would have in the first place.
Need to UNPIVOT? Why not CROSS APPLY VALUES instead?[/url]
Since random numbers are too important to be left to chance, let's generate some![/url]
Learn to understand recursive CTEs by example.[/url]
[url url=http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/St