June 14, 2016 at 3:19 am
hi,
I have a string
6:no 7:no 18:no 19:no 21:no 22:na 47:no 11:na 12:na 23:na 24:na 25:na 26:na 27:na 28:na 14:na 15:na
this represents questions...and their answers...eg question 6 - had answer no...etc
how can I
1) find the question number and
2) its value?
3) add up all the 'yes' and 'no's per question..as a % of the TOTAL questions?
thanks
June 14, 2016 at 4:45 am
You will need a string splitting function.
I am assuming the existence of one such function, "DelimitedSplit8K" whose script in given below for reference.
http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/Tally+Table/72993/
DECLARE @String VARCHAR(1000)
SET @String = '6:no 7:no 18:no 19:no 21:no 22:na 47:no 11:na 12:na 23:na 24:na 25:na 26:na 27:na 28:na 14:na 15:na'
SELECT LEFT( Item, CHARINDEX( ':', Item ) - 1 ) AS QuestionNo, RIGHT( Item, LEN( Item ) - CHARINDEX( ':', Item ) ) AS Answer
FROM [dbo].[DelimitedSplit8K]( @String, ' ' )
SELECT RIGHT( Item, LEN( Item ) - CHARINDEX( ':', Item ) ) AS Answer,
COUNT(*) * 100./( SELECT COUNT(*) FROM [dbo].[DelimitedSplit8K]( @String, ' ' ) ) AS Percentage
FROM [dbo].[DelimitedSplit8K]( @String, ' ' )
GROUP BY RIGHT( Item, LEN( Item ) - CHARINDEX( ':', Item ) )
Edit: The link seemingly had some problem. Edited the post to correct it.
How to post data/code on a forum to get the best help - Jeff Moden
http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/Best+Practices/61537/
June 14, 2016 at 5:32 am
hi Kingston,
my web browser is prohibiting me from getting into the code of the DelimitedSplit8K function...for some weird reason.
May you please embed in your reply?
thank you
June 14, 2016 at 5:55 am
llouw1 (6/14/2016)
hi Kingston,my web browser is prohibiting me from getting into the code of the DelimitedSplit8K function...for some weird reason.
May you please embed in your reply?
thank you
Actually its an article written by Jeff Moden.
I would recommend you to read the article before you implement the solution in Live environments.
I have given the script below for your reference.
CREATE FUNCTION [dbo].[DelimitedSplit8K]
--===== Define I/O parameters
(@pString VARCHAR(8000), @pDelimiter CHAR(1))
--WARNING!!! DO NOT USE MAX DATA-TYPES HERE! IT WILL KILL PERFORMANCE!
RETURNS TABLE WITH SCHEMABINDING AS
RETURN
--===== "Inline" CTE Driven "Tally Table" produces values from 1 up to 10,000...
-- enough to cover VARCHAR(8000)
WITH E1(N) AS (
SELECT 1 UNION ALL SELECT 1 UNION ALL SELECT 1 UNION ALL
SELECT 1 UNION ALL SELECT 1 UNION ALL SELECT 1 UNION ALL
SELECT 1 UNION ALL SELECT 1 UNION ALL SELECT 1 UNION ALL SELECT 1
), --10E+1 or 10 rows
E2(N) AS (SELECT 1 FROM E1 a, E1 b), --10E+2 or 100 rows
E4(N) AS (SELECT 1 FROM E2 a, E2 b), --10E+4 or 10,000 rows max
cteTally(N) AS (--==== This provides the "base" CTE and limits the number of rows right up front
-- for both a performance gain and prevention of accidental "overruns"
SELECT TOP (ISNULL(DATALENGTH(@pString),0)) ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDER BY (SELECT NULL)) FROM E4
),
cteStart(N1) AS (--==== This returns N+1 (starting position of each "element" just once for each delimiter)
SELECT 1 UNION ALL
SELECT t.N+1 FROM cteTally t WHERE SUBSTRING(@pString,t.N,1) = @pDelimiter
),
cteLen(N1,L1) AS(--==== Return start and length (for use in substring)
SELECT s.N1,
ISNULL(NULLIF(CHARINDEX(@pDelimiter,@pString,s.N1),0)-s.N1,8000)
FROM cteStart s
)
--===== Do the actual split. The ISNULL/NULLIF combo handles the length for the final element when no delimiter is found.
SELECT ItemNumber = ROW_NUMBER() OVER(ORDER BY l.N1),
Item = SUBSTRING(@pString, l.N1, l.L1)
FROM cteLen l
;
How to post data/code on a forum to get the best help - Jeff Moden
http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/Best+Practices/61537/
June 14, 2016 at 6:48 am
Thank you so much.
no - in your example - where you have a variable @String - I would have a table and not just one variable e.g.
1,4:yes 6:yes 7:yes 8:yes 9:yes 10:yes 11:na 12:na 13:na 14:na 15:na
2,4:yes 6:yes 7:yes 8:yes 9:yes 10:yes 11:na 12:na 13:na 14:na 15:yes
etc....
how would I change the code to read a table instead of one single variable?
Much appreciated
June 14, 2016 at 6:56 am
llouw1 (6/14/2016)
Thank you so much.no - in your example - where you have a variable @String - I would have a table and not just one variable e.g.
1,4:yes 6:yes 7:yes 8:yes 9:yes 10:yes 11:na 12:na 13:na 14:na 15:na
2,4:yes 6:yes 7:yes 8:yes 9:yes 10:yes 11:na 12:na 13:na 14:na 15:yes
etc....
how would I change the code to read a table instead of one single variable?
Much appreciated
The best way to do that is to read the article that Kingston referenced. You need to understand this code before you use it in your environment. Remember it is your phone that is going to ring at 3am when something goes wrong.
You can find another link to that article in my signature.
_______________________________________________________________
Need help? Help us help you.
Read the article at http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/Best+Practices/61537/ for best practices on asking questions.
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/
June 14, 2016 at 7:05 am
hi
I am pressed for time...as we all are LOL...
all I need to do is read through the table and for every new record I need to re-set the variable @string with the applicable fields.
dont know how to do that part....
thanks.
June 14, 2016 at 7:26 am
llouw1 (6/14/2016)
hiI am pressed for time...as we all are LOL...
all I need to do is read through the table and for every new record I need to re-set the variable @string with the applicable fields.
dont know how to do that part....
thanks.
No offense mate but try reading the article. I am also pressed for time to do MY job. You were given the tools needed to resolve your issue. We led you to the water, now it is your turn to drink.
If I give you the code there are two MAJOR issues with that. First is that you would be taking code from some yahoo on the internet and putting it in production without bothering to understand it. How is that going to work for you when your boss asks about it? Second, is YOU have to support the code you deploy. Your phone is ringing, not mine, when your application suddenly stops working. That is NOT the time to finally admit that you got the code from the internet and don't actually understand it. Take a bit more pride in your work and do it right, instead of right now.
_______________________________________________________________
Need help? Help us help you.
Read the article at http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/Best+Practices/61537/ for best practices on asking questions.
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/
June 14, 2016 at 7:44 am
I have read the article...and I really cannot see the link between my question and the article.
June 14, 2016 at 7:51 am
llouw1 (6/14/2016)
I have read the article...and I really cannot see the link between my question and the article.
Kingston's link doesn't work for me either.
Find section [Figure 22: Testing Functionality] in this article [/url]instead.
For fast, accurate and documented assistance in answering your questions, please read this article.
Understanding and using APPLY, (I) and (II) Paul White
Hidden RBAR: Triangular Joins / The "Numbers" or "Tally" Table: What it is and how it replaces a loop Jeff Moden
June 14, 2016 at 7:52 am
llouw1 (6/14/2016)
I have read the article...and I really cannot see the link between my question and the article.
did you go to the bottom of the articel and download the code? (The New Splitter Functions.zip)
if you open that you will see that there are usage examples and tests right at the start of the code ...placed as comments within the code itself.
EDIT.....just read thread again and see that you were having difficulty getting the code....so....from the top
DROP FUNCTION [dbo].[DelimitedSplit8K]
go
CREATE FUNCTION [dbo].[DelimitedSplit8K]
/**********************************************************************************************************************
Purpose:
Split a given string at a given delimiter and return a list of the split elements (items).
Notes:
1. Leading a trailing delimiters are treated as if an empty string element were present.
2. Consecutive delimiters are treated as if an empty string element were present between them.
3. Except when spaces are used as a delimiter, all spaces present in each element are preserved.
Returns:
iTVF containing the following:
ItemNumber = Element position of Item as a BIGINT (not converted to INT to eliminate a CAST)
Item = Element value as a VARCHAR(8000)
Statistics on this function may be found at the following URL:
http://www.sqlservercentral.com/Forums/Topic1101315-203-4.aspx
CROSS APPLY Usage Examples and Tests:
--=====================================================================================================================
-- TEST 1:
-- This tests for various possible conditions in a string using a comma as the delimiter. The expected results are
-- laid out in the comments
--=====================================================================================================================
--===== Conditionally drop the test tables to make reruns easier for testing.
-- (this is NOT a part of the solution)
IF OBJECT_ID('tempdb..#JBMTest') IS NOT NULL DROP TABLE #JBMTest
;
--===== Create and populate a test table on the fly (this is NOT a part of the solution).
-- In the following comments, "b" is a blank and "E" is an element in the left to right order.
-- Double Quotes are used to encapsulate the output of "Item" so that you can see that all blanks
-- are preserved no matter where they may appear.
SELECT *
INTO #JBMTest
FROM ( --# & type of Return Row(s)
SELECT 0, NULL UNION ALL --1 NULL
SELECT 1, SPACE(0) UNION ALL --1 b (Empty String)
SELECT 2, SPACE(1) UNION ALL --1 b (1 space)
SELECT 3, SPACE(5) UNION ALL --1 b (5 spaces)
SELECT 4, ',' UNION ALL --2 b b (both are empty strings)
SELECT 5, '55555' UNION ALL --1 E
SELECT 6, ',55555' UNION ALL --2 b E
SELECT 7, ',55555,' UNION ALL --3 b E b
SELECT 8, '55555,' UNION ALL --2 b B
SELECT 9, '55555,1' UNION ALL --2 E E
SELECT 10, '1,55555' UNION ALL --2 E E
SELECT 11, '55555,4444,333,22,1' UNION ALL --5 E E E E E
SELECT 12, '55555,4444,,333,22,1' UNION ALL --6 E E b E E E
SELECT 13, ',55555,4444,,333,22,1,' UNION ALL --8 b E E b E E E b
SELECT 14, ',55555,4444,,,333,22,1,' UNION ALL --9 b E E b b E E E b
SELECT 15, ' 4444,55555 ' UNION ALL --2 E (w/Leading Space) E (w/Trailing Space)
SELECT 16, 'This,is,a,test.' --E E E E
) d (SomeID, SomeValue)
;
--===== Split the CSV column for the whole table using CROSS APPLY (this is the solution)
SELECT test.SomeID, test.SomeValue, split.ItemNumber, Item = QUOTENAME(split.Item,'"')
FROM #JBMTest test
CROSS APPLY dbo.DelimitedSplit8K(test.SomeValue,',') split
;
--=====================================================================================================================
-- TEST 2:
-- This tests for various "alpha" splits and COLLATION using all ASCII characters from 0 to 255 as a delimiter against
-- a given string. Note that not all of the delimiters will be visible and some will show up as tiny squares because
-- they are "control" characters. More specifically, this test will show you what happens to various non-accented
-- letters for your given collation depending on the delimiter you chose.
--=====================================================================================================================
WITH
cteBuildAllCharacters (String,Delimiter) AS
(
SELECT TOP 256
'ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz0123456789',
CHAR(ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDER BY (SELECT NULL))-1)
FROM master.sys.all_columns
)
SELECT ASCII_Value = ASCII(c.Delimiter), c.Delimiter, split.ItemNumber, Item = QUOTENAME(split.Item,'"')
FROM cteBuildAllCharacters c
CROSS APPLY dbo.DelimitedSplit8K(c.String,c.Delimiter) split
ORDER BY ASCII_Value, split.ItemNumber
;
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Other Notes:
1. Optimized for VARCHAR(8000) or less. No testing or error reporting for truncation at 8000 characters is done.
2. Optimized for single character delimiter. Multi-character delimiters should be resolvedexternally from this
function.
3. Optimized for use with CROSS APPLY.
4. Does not "trim" elements just in case leading or trailing blanks are intended.
5. If you don't know how a Tally table can be used to replace loops, please see the following...
http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/T-SQL/62867/
6. Changing this function to use NVARCHAR(MAX) will cause it to run twice as slow. It's just the nature of
VARCHAR(MAX) whether it fits in-row or not.
7. Multi-machine testing for the method of using UNPIVOT instead of 10 SELECT/UNION ALLs shows that the UNPIVOT method
is quite machine dependent and can slow things down quite a bit.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Credits:
This code is the product of many people's efforts including but not limited to the following:
cteTally concept originally by Iztek Ben Gan and "decimalized" by Lynn Pettis (and others) for a bit of extra speed
and finally redacted by Jeff Moden for a different slant on readability and compactness. Hat's off to Paul White for
his simple explanations of CROSS APPLY and for his detailed testing efforts. Last but not least, thanks to
Ron "BitBucket" McCullough and Wayne Sheffield for their extreme performance testing across multiple machines and
versions of SQL Server. The latest improvement brought an additional 15-20% improvement over Rev 05. Special thanks
to "Nadrek" and "peter-757102" (aka Peter de Heer) for bringing such improvements to light. Nadrek's original
improvement brought about a 10% performance gain and Peter followed that up with the content of Rev 07.
I also thank whoever wrote the first article I ever saw on "numbers tables" which is located at the following URL
and to Adam Machanic for leading me to it many years ago.
http://sqlserver2000.databases.aspfaq.com/why-should-i-consider-using-an-auxiliary-numbers-table.html
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Revision History:
Rev 00 - 20 Jan 2010 - Concept for inline cteTally: Lynn Pettis and others.
Redaction/Implementation: Jeff Moden
- Base 10 redaction and reduction for CTE. (Total rewrite)
Rev 01 - 13 Mar 2010 - Jeff Moden
- Removed one additional concatenation and one subtraction from the SUBSTRING in the SELECT List for that tiny
bit of extra speed.
Rev 02 - 14 Apr 2010 - Jeff Moden
- No code changes. Added CROSS APPLY usage example to the header, some additional credits, and extra
documentation.
Rev 03 - 18 Apr 2010 - Jeff Moden
- No code changes. Added notes 7, 8, and 9 about certain "optimizations" that don't actually work for this
type of function.
Rev 04 - 29 Jun 2010 - Jeff Moden
- Added WITH SCHEMABINDING thanks to a note by Paul White. This prevents an unnecessary "Table Spool" when the
function is used in an UPDATE statement even though the function makes no external references.
Rev 05 - 02 Apr 2011 - Jeff Moden
- Rewritten for extreme performance improvement especially for larger strings approaching the 8K boundary and
for strings that have wider elements. The redaction of this code involved removing ALL concatenation of
delimiters, optimization of the maximum "N" value by using TOP instead of including it in the WHERE clause,
and the reduction of all previous calculations (thanks to the switch to a "zero based" cteTally) to just one
instance of one add and one instance of a subtract. The length calculation for the final element (not
followed by a delimiter) in the string to be split has been greatly simplified by using the ISNULL/NULLIF
combination to determine when the CHARINDEX returned a 0 which indicates there are no more delimiters to be
had or to start with. Depending on the width of the elements, this code is between 4 and 8 times faster on a
single CPU box than the original code especially near the 8K boundary.
- Modified comments to include more sanity checks on the usage example, etc.
- Removed "other" notes 8 and 9 as they were no longer applicable.
Rev 06 - 12 Apr 2011 - Jeff Moden
- Based on a suggestion by Ron "Bitbucket" McCullough, additional test rows were added to the sample code and
the code was changed to encapsulate the output in pipes so that spaces and empty strings could be perceived
in the output. The first "Notes" section was added. Finally, an extra test was added to the comments above.
Rev 07 - 06 May 2011 - Peter de Heer, a further 15-20% performance enhancement has been discovered and incorporated
into this code which also eliminated the need for a "zero" position in the cteTally table.
**********************************************************************************************************************/
--===== Define I/O parameters
(@pString VARCHAR(8000), @pDelimiter CHAR(1))
RETURNS TABLE WITH SCHEMABINDING AS
RETURN
--===== "Inline" CTE Driven "Tally Table" produces values from 0 up to 10,000...
-- enough to cover NVARCHAR(4000)
WITH E1(N) AS (
SELECT 1 UNION ALL SELECT 1 UNION ALL SELECT 1 UNION ALL
SELECT 1 UNION ALL SELECT 1 UNION ALL SELECT 1 UNION ALL
SELECT 1 UNION ALL SELECT 1 UNION ALL SELECT 1 UNION ALL SELECT 1
), --10E+1 or 10 rows
E2(N) AS (SELECT 1 FROM E1 a, E1 b), --10E+2 or 100 rows
E4(N) AS (SELECT 1 FROM E2 a, E2 b), --10E+4 or 10,000 rows max
cteTally(N) AS (--==== This provides the "base" CTE and limits the number of rows right up front
-- for both a performance gain and prevention of accidental "overruns"
SELECT TOP (ISNULL(DATALENGTH(@pString),0)) ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDER BY (SELECT NULL)) FROM E4
),
cteStart(N1) AS (--==== This returns N+1 (starting position of each "element" just once for each delimiter)
SELECT 1 UNION ALL
SELECT t.N+1 FROM cteTally t WHERE SUBSTRING(@pString,t.N,1) = @pDelimiter
),
cteLen(N1,L1) AS(--==== Return start and length (for use in substring)
SELECT s.N1,
ISNULL(NULLIF(CHARINDEX(@pDelimiter,@pString,s.N1),0)-s.N1,8000)
FROM cteStart s
)
--===== Do the actual split. The ISNULL/NULLIF combo handles the length for the final element when no delimiter is found.
SELECT ItemNumber = ROW_NUMBER() OVER(ORDER BY l.N1),
Item = SUBSTRING(@pString, l.N1, l.L1)
FROM cteLen l
;
GO
________________________________________________________________
you can lead a user to data....but you cannot make them think
and remember....every day is a school day
June 14, 2016 at 7:58 am
Thank you...someone that agrees with me...
I am totally new to the site...and obviously it takes time to figure out.
June 14, 2016 at 9:31 am
Kingston Dhasian (6/14/2016)
llouw1 (6/14/2016)
hi Kingston,my web browser is prohibiting me from getting into the code of the DelimitedSplit8K function...for some weird reason.
May you please embed in your reply?
thank you
Actually its an article written by Jeff Moden.
I would recommend you to read the article before you implement the solution in Live environments.
I have given the script below for your reference.
CREATE FUNCTION [dbo].[DelimitedSplit8K]--===== Define I/O parameters
(@pString VARCHAR(8000), @pDelimiter CHAR(1))
--WARNING!!! DO NOT USE MAX DATA-TYPES HERE! IT WILL KILL PERFORMANCE!
RETURNS TABLE WITH SCHEMABINDING AS
RETURN
--===== "Inline" CTE Driven "Tally Table" produces values from 1 up to 10,000...
-- enough to cover VARCHAR(8000)
WITH E1(N) AS (
SELECT 1 UNION ALL SELECT 1 UNION ALL SELECT 1 UNION ALL
SELECT 1 UNION ALL SELECT 1 UNION ALL SELECT 1 UNION ALL
SELECT 1 UNION ALL SELECT 1 UNION ALL SELECT 1 UNION ALL SELECT 1
), --10E+1 or 10 rows
E2(N) AS (SELECT 1 FROM E1 a, E1 b), --10E+2 or 100 rows
E4(N) AS (SELECT 1 FROM E2 a, E2 b), --10E+4 or 10,000 rows max
cteTally(N) AS (--==== This provides the "base" CTE and limits the number of rows right up front
-- for both a performance gain and prevention of accidental "overruns"
SELECT TOP (ISNULL(DATALENGTH(@pString),0)) ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDER BY (SELECT NULL)) FROM E4
),
cteStart(N1) AS (--==== This returns N+1 (starting position of each "element" just once for each delimiter)
SELECT 1 UNION ALL
SELECT t.N+1 FROM cteTally t WHERE SUBSTRING(@pString,t.N,1) = @pDelimiter
),
cteLen(N1,L1) AS(--==== Return start and length (for use in substring)
SELECT s.N1,
ISNULL(NULLIF(CHARINDEX(@pDelimiter,@pString,s.N1),0)-s.N1,8000)
FROM cteStart s
)
--===== Do the actual split. The ISNULL/NULLIF combo handles the length for the final element when no delimiter is found.
SELECT ItemNumber = ROW_NUMBER() OVER(ORDER BY l.N1),
Item = SUBSTRING(@pString, l.N1, l.L1)
FROM cteLen l
;
Kinston, why did you cut out all the comments from the function? Lot of good information lost by doing that, including the link to the article.
June 22, 2016 at 12:03 am
llouw1 (6/14/2016)
I have read the article...and I really cannot see the link between my question and the article.
That's because people provided you with a tool to solve a problem without explaining what is actually the problem.
The problem is - lack of a database on your side.
What you've got is not a database.
By your own admission:
I have a string
6:no 7:no 18:no 19:no 21:no 22:na 47:no 11:na 12:na 23:na 24:na 25:na 26:na 27:na 28:na 14:na 15:na
If you want to run some queries against it you need to turn it into a database.
The corner stone of any database is data normalisation:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-nz/kb/283878
So, you need to use the metadata:
this represents questions...and their answers...eg question 6 - had answer no...etc
to split that string into data units and put them into a database.
First step would be creating a table:
QuestionNo
Answer
Second step would be splitting the string into the data units.
And that's where you need that function everybody was telling you about.
Third step would be inserting the output of the splitter into the table which you should be able to query using SQL.
Do you see it now?
_____________
Code for TallyGenerator
June 22, 2016 at 12:18 am
thank you.
I'm new on this forum and every forum has its own way of doing things.
Appreciated
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