PLSQL to TSQL - REGEXP - tsql

Question

Im trying to convert a script from PLSQL to TSQL and am stuff with a couple of lines
table(cast(multiset(select level from dual connect by level <= len (regexp_replace(t.image, '[^**]+'))/2) as sys.OdciNumberList)) levels
where substr(REGEXP_SUBSTR (t.image, '[^**]+',1, levels.column_value),1,instr( REGEXP_SUBSTR (t.image, '[^**]+',1, levels.column_value),'=',1) -1)
IMAGE
Any help would be great.
Chris

Answer 1

For a better answer it would be good to include some sample input and desired results. Especially when addressing a different version of SQL. Perhaps including a PL/SQL tag would help find someone who understands PL/SQL and T-SQL. It would also be helpful to include DDL, specifically the datatype for "Level". Again, I say this not to be critical but rather guide you towards getting better answers here.
All That said, you can accomplish what you are trying to do in T-SQL leveraging a tally table, an N-Grams function and a couple other functions which I are included at the end of this post.
regexp_replace
To replace or remove characters that match a pattern in t-SQL you can use patreplace8k. Here's an example of how to use it to replace numbers with *'s:
SELECT pr.NewString
FROM samd.patReplace8K('My phone number is 555-2211','[0-9]','*') AS pr;
Returns: My phone number is -*
regexp_subsr
Here's an example of how to extract all phone numbers from a string:
DECLARE
#string VARCHAR(8000) = 'Call me later at 222-3333 or tomorrow at 312.555.2222,
[phone], or at 1+800-555-4444 before noon. Thanks!',
#pattern VARCHAR(50) = '%[^0-9()+.-]%';
-- EXTRACTOR
SELECT ItemNumber = ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDER BY f.position),
ItemIndex = f.position,
ItemLength = itemLen.l,
Item = SUBSTRING(f.token, 1, itemLen.l)
FROM
(
SELECT ng.position, SUBSTRING(#string,ng.position,DATALENGTH(#string))
FROM samd.NGrams8k(#string, 1) AS ng
WHERE PATINDEX(#pattern, ng.token) < --<< this token does NOT match the pattern
ABS(SIGN(ng.position-1)-1) + --<< are you the first row? OR
PATINDEX(#pattern,SUBSTRING(#string,ng.position-1,1)) --<< always 0 for 1st row
) AS f(position, token)
CROSS APPLY (VALUES(ISNULL(NULLIF(PATINDEX(#pattern,f.token),0), --CROSS APPLY (VALUES(ISNULL(NULLIF(PATINDEX('%'+#pattern+'%',f.token),0),
DATALENGTH(#string)+2-f.position)-1)) AS itemLen(l)
WHERE itemLen.L > 6 -- this filter is more harmful to the extractor than the splitter
ORDER BY ItemNumber;
T-SQL INSTR Function
I included a T-SQL version of Oracles INSTR function at the end of this post. Note these examples:
DECLARE
#string VARCHAR(8000) = 'AABBCC-AA123-AAXYZPDQ-AA-54321',
#search VARCHAR(8000) = '-AA',
#position INT = 1,
#occurance INT = 2;
-- 1.1. Get me the 2nd #occurance "-AA" in #string beginning at #position 1
SELECT f.* FROM samd.instr8k(#string,#search,#position,#occurance) AS f;
-- 1.2. Retreive everything *BEFORE* the second instance of "-AA"
SELECT
ItemIndex = f.ItemIndex,
Item = SUBSTRING(#string,1,f.itemindex-1)
FROM samd.instr8k(#string,#search,#position,#occurance) AS f;
-- 1.3. Retreive everything *AFTER* the second instance of "-AA"
SELECT
ItemIndex = MAX(f.ItemIndex),
Item = MAX(SUBSTRING(#string,f.itemindex+f.itemLength,8000))
FROM samd.instr8k(#string,#search,#position,#occurance) AS f;
regexp_replace (ADVANCED)
Here's a more complex example, leveraging ngrams8k to replace phone numbers with the text "REMOVED"
DECLARE
#string VARCHAR(8000) = 'Call me later at 222-3333 or tomorrow at 312.555.2222, [phone], or at 1+800-555-4444 before noon. Thanks!',
#pattern VARCHAR(50) = '%[0-9()+.-]%';
SELECT NewString = (
SELECT IIF(IsMatch=1 AND patSplit.item LIKE '%[0-9][0-9][0-9]%','<REMOVED>', patSplit.item)
FROM
(
SELECT 1, i.Idx, SUBSTRING(#string,1,i.Idx), CAST(0 AS BIT)
FROM (VALUES(PATINDEX(#pattern,#string)-1)) AS i(Idx) --FROM (VALUES(PATINDEX('%'+#pattern+'%',#string)-1)) AS i(Idx)
WHERE SUBSTRING(#string,1,1) NOT LIKE #pattern
UNION ALL
SELECT r.RN,
itemLength = LEAD(r.RN,1,DATALENGTH(#string)+1) OVER (ORDER BY r.RN)-r.RN,
item = SUBSTRING(#string,r.RN,
LEAD(r.RN,1,DATALENGTH(#string)+1) OVER (ORDER BY r.RN)-r.RN),
isMatch = ABS(t.p-2+1)
FROM core.rangeAB(1,DATALENGTH(#string),1,1) AS r
CROSS APPLY (VALUES (
CAST(PATINDEX(#pattern,SUBSTRING(#string,r.RN,1)) AS BIT),
CAST(PATINDEX(#pattern,SUBSTRING(#string,r.RN-1,1)) AS BIT),
SUBSTRING(#string,r.RN,r.Op+1))) AS t(c,p,s)
WHERE t.c^t.p = 1
) AS patSplit(ItemIndex, ItemLength, Item, IsMatch)
FOR XML PATH(''), TYPE).value('.','varchar(8000)');
Returns:
Call me later at or tomorrow at , , or at before noon. Thanks!
CREATE FUNCTION core.rangeAB
(
#Low BIGINT, -- (start) Lowest number in the set
#High BIGINT, -- (stop) Highest number in the set
#Gap BIGINT, -- (step) Difference between each number in the set
#Row1 BIT -- Base: 0 or 1; should RN begin with 0 or 1?
)
/****************************************************************************************
[Purpose]:
Creates a lazy, in-memory, forward-ordered sequence of up to 531,441,000,000 integers
starting with #Low and ending with #High (inclusive). RangeAB is a pure, 100% set-based
alternative to solving SQL problems using iterative methods such as loops, cursors and
recursive CTEs. RangeAB is based on Itzik Ben-Gan's getnums function for producing a
sequence of integers and uses logic from Jeff Moden's fnTally function which includes a
parameter for determining if the "row-number" (RN) should begin with 0 or 1.
I wanted to use the name "Range" because it functions and performs almost identically to
the Range function built into Python and Clojure. RANGE is a reserved SQL keyword so I
went with "RangeAB". Functions/Algorithms developed using rangeAB can be easilty ported
over to Python, Clojure or any other programming language that leverages a lazy sequence.
The two major differences between RangeAB and the Python/Clojure versions are:
1. RangeAB is *Inclusive* where the other two are *Exclusive". range(0,3) in Python and
Clojure return [0 1 2], core.rangeAB(0,3) returns [0 1 2 3].
2. RangeAB has a fourth Parameter (#Row1) to determine if RN should begin with 0 or 1.
[Author]:
Alan Burstein
[Compatibility]:
SQL Server 2008+
[Syntax]:
SELECT r.RN, r.OP, r.N1, r.N2
FROM core.rangeAB(#Low,#High,#Gap,#Row1) AS r;
[Parameters]:
#Low = BIGINT; represents the lowest value for N1.
#High = BIGINT; represents the highest value for N1.
#Gap = BIGINT; represents how much N1 and N2 will increase each row. #Gap is also the
difference between N1 and N2.
#Row1 = BIT; represents the base (first) value of RN. When #Row1 = 0, RN begins with 0,
when #row = 1 then RN begins with 1.
[Returns]:
Inline Table Valued Function returns:
RN = BIGINT; a row number that works just like T-SQL ROW_NUMBER() except that it can
start at 0 or 1 which is dictated by #Row1. If you need the numbers:
(0 or 1) through #High, then use RN as your "N" value, ((#Row1=0 for 0, #Row1=1),
otherwise use N1.
OP = BIGINT; returns the "finite opposite" of RN. When RN begins with 0 the first number
in the set will be 0 for RN, the last number in will be 0 for OP. When returning the
numbers 1 to 10, 1 to 10 is retrurned in ascending order for RN and in descending
order for OP.
Given the Numbers 1 to 3, 3 is the opposite of 1, 2 the opposite of 2, and 1 is the
opposite of 3. Given the numbers -1 to 2, the opposite of -1 is 2, the opposite of 0
is 1, and the opposite of 1 is 0.
The best practie is to only use OP when #Gap > 1; use core.O instead. Doing so will
improve performance by 1-2% (not huge but every little bit counts)
N1 = BIGINT; This is the "N" in your tally table/numbers function. this is your *Lazy*
sequence of numbers starting at #Low and incrementing by #Gap until the next number
in the sequence is greater than #High.
N2 = BIGINT; a lazy sequence of numbers starting #Low+#Gap and incrementing by #Gap. N2
will always be greater than N1 by #Gap. N2 can also be thought of as:
LEAD(N1,1,N1+#Gap) OVER (ORDER BY RN)
[Dependencies]:
N/A
[Developer Notes]:
1. core.rangeAB returns one billion rows in exactly 90 seconds on my laptop:
4X 2.7GHz CPU's, 32 GB - multiple versions of SQL Server (2005-2019)
2. The lowest and highest possible numbers returned are whatever is allowable by a
bigint. The function, however, returns no more than 531,441,000,000 rows (8100^3).
3. #Gap does not affect RN, RN will begin at #Row1 and increase by 1 until the last row
unless its used in a subquery where a filter is applied to RN.
4. #Gap must be greater than 0 or the function will not return any rows.
5. Keep in mind that when #Row1 is 0 then the highest RN value (ROWNUMBER) will be the
number of rows returned minus 1
6. If you only need is a sequential set beginning at 0 or 1 then, for best performance
use the RN column. Use N1 and/or N2 when you need to begin your sequence at any
number other than 0 or 1 or if you need a gap between your sequence of numbers.
7. Although #Gap is a bigint it must be a positive integer or the function will
not return any rows.
8. The function will not return any rows when one of the following conditions are true:
* any of the input parameters are NULL
* #High is less than #Low
* #Gap is not greater than 0
To force the function to return all NULLs instead of not returning anything you can
add the following code to the end of the query:
UNION ALL
SELECT NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL
WHERE NOT (#High&#Low&#Gap&#Row1 IS NOT NULL AND #High >= #Low AND #Gap > 0)
This code was excluded as it adds a ~5% performance penalty.
9. There is no performance penalty for sorting by RN ASC; there is a large performance
penalty, however for sorting in descending order. If you need a descending sort the
use OP in place of RN then sort by rn ASC.
10. When setting the #Row1 to 0 and sorting by RN you will see that the 0 is added via
MERGE JOIN concatination. Under the hood the function is essentially concatinating
but, because it's using a MERGE JOIN operator instead of concatination the cost
estimations are needlessly high. You can circumvent this problem by changing:
ORDER BY core.rangeAB.RN to: ORDER BY ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDER BY (SELECT NULL))
[Examples]:
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Revision History]:
Rev 00 - 20140518 - Initial Development - AJB
Rev 05 - 20191122 - Developed this "core" version for open source distribution;
updated notes and did some final code clean-up
*****************************************************************************************/
RETURNS TABLE WITH SCHEMABINDING AS RETURN
WITH
L1(N) AS
(
SELECT 1
FROM (VALUES
($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),
($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),
($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),
($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),($),
($),($)) T(N) -- 90 values
),
L2(N) AS (SELECT 1 FROM L1 a CROSS JOIN L1 b CROSS JOIN L1 c),
iTally(RN) AS (SELECT ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDER BY (SELECT 1)) FROM L2 a CROSS JOIN L2 b)
SELECT r.RN, r.OP, r.N1, r.N2
FROM
(
SELECT
RN = 0,
OP = (#High-#Low)/#Gap,
N1 = #Low,
N2 = #Gap+#Low
WHERE #Row1 = 0
UNION ALL -- (#High-#Low)/#Gap+1:
SELECT TOP (ABS((ISNULL(#High,0)-ISNULL(#Low,0))/ISNULL(#Gap,0)+ISNULL(#Row1,1)))
RN = i.RN,
OP = (#High-#Low)/#Gap+(2*#Row1)-i.RN,
N1 = (i.rn-#Row1)*#Gap+#Low,
N2 = (i.rn-(#Row1-1))*#Gap+#Low
FROM iTally AS i
ORDER BY i.RN
) AS r
WHERE #High&#Low&#Gap&#Row1 IS NOT NULL AND #High >= #Low
AND #Gap > 0;
GO
CREATE FUNCTION samd.ngrams8k
(
#String VARCHAR(8000), -- Input string
#N INT -- requested token size
)
/*****************************************************************************************
[Purpose]:
A character-level N-Grams function that outputs a contiguous stream of #N-sized tokens
based on an input string (#String). Accepts strings up to 8000 varchar characters long.
For more information about N-Grams see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N-gram.
[Author]:
Alan Burstein
[Compatibility]:
SQL Server 2008+, Azure SQL Database
[Syntax]:
--===== Autonomous
SELECT ng.Position, ng.Token
FROM samd.ngrams8k(#String,#N) AS ng;
--===== Against a table using APPLY
SELECT s.SomeID, ng.Position, ng.Token
FROM dbo.SomeTable AS s
CROSS APPLY samd.ngrams8k(s.SomeValue,#N) AS ng;
[Parameters]:
#String = The input string to split into tokens.
#N = The size of each token returned.
[Returns]:
Position = BIGINT; the position of the token in the input string
token = VARCHAR(8000); a #N-sized character-level N-Gram token
[Dependencies]:
1. core.rangeAB (iTVF)
[Developer Notes]:
1. ngrams8k is not case sensitive;
2. Many functions that use ngrams8k will see a huge performance gain when the optimizer
creates a parallel execution plan. One way to get a parallel query plan (if the
optimizer does not choose one) is to use make_parallel by Adam Machanic which can be
found here:
sqlblog.com/blogs/adam_machanic/archive/2013/07/11/next-level-parallel-plan-porcing.aspx
3. When #N is less than 1 or greater than the datalength of the input string then no
tokens (rows) are returned. If either #String or #N are NULL no rows are returned.
This is a debatable topic but the thinking behind this decision is that: because you
can't split 'xxx' into 4-grams, you can't split a NULL value into unigrams and you
can't turn anything into NULL-grams, no rows should be returned.
For people who would prefer that a NULL input forces the function to return a single
NULL output you could add this code to the end of the function:
UNION ALL
SELECT 1, NULL
WHERE NOT(#N > 0 AND #N <= DATALENGTH(#String)) OR (#N IS NULL OR #String IS NULL)
4. ngrams8k is deterministic. For more about deterministic functions see:
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms178091.aspx
[Examples]:
--===== 1. Split the string, "abcd" into unigrams, bigrams and trigrams
SELECT ng.Position, ng.Token FROM samd.ngrams8k('abcd',1) AS ng; -- unigrams (#N=1)
SELECT ng.Position, ng.Token FROM samd.ngrams8k('abcd',2) AS ng; -- bigrams (#N=2)
SELECT ng.Position, ng.Token FROM samd.ngrams8k('abcd',3) AS ng; -- trigrams (#N=3)
[Revision History]:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Rev 00 - 20140310 - Initial Development - Alan Burstein
Rev 01 - 20150522 - Removed DQS N-Grams functionality, improved iTally logic. Also Added
conversion to bigint in the TOP logic to remove implicit conversion
to bigint - Alan Burstein
Rev 05 - 20171228 - Small simplification; changed:
(ABS(CONVERT(BIGINT,(DATALENGTH(ISNULL(#String,''))-(ISNULL(#N,1)-1)),0)))
to:
(ABS(CONVERT(BIGINT,(DATALENGTH(ISNULL(#String,''))+1-ISNULL(#N,1)),0)))
Rev 06 - 20180612 - Using CHECKSUM(N) in the to convert N in the token output instead of
using (CAST N as int). CHECKSUM removes the need to convert to int.
Rev 07 - 20180612 - re-designed to: Use core.rangeAB - Alan Burstein
*****************************************************************************************/
RETURNS TABLE WITH SCHEMABINDING AS RETURN
SELECT
Position = r.RN,
Token = SUBSTRING(#String,CHECKSUM(r.RN),#N)
FROM core.rangeAB(1,LEN(#String)+1-#N,1,1) AS r
WHERE #N > 0 AND #N <= LEN(#String);
GO
CREATE FUNCTION samd.patReplace8K
(
#string VARCHAR(8000),
#pattern VARCHAR(50),
#replace VARCHAR(20)
)
/*****************************************************************************************
[Purpose]:
Given a string (#string), a pattern (#pattern), and a replacement character (#replace)
patReplace8K will replace any character in #string that matches the #Pattern parameter
with the character, #replace.
[Author]:
Alan Burstein
[Compatibility]:
SQL Server 2008+
[Syntax]:
--===== Basic Syntax Example
SELECT pr.NewString
FROM samd.patReplace8K(#String,#Pattern,#Replace) AS pr;
[Developer Notes]:
1. Required SQL Server 2008+
2. #Pattern IS case sensitive but can be easily modified to make it case insensitive
3. There is no need to include the "%" before and/or after your pattern since since we
are evaluating each character individually
4. Certain special characters, such as "$" and "%" need to be escaped with a "/"
like so: [/$/%]
[Examples]:
--===== 1. Replace numeric characters with a "*"
SELECT pr.NewString
FROM samd.patReplace8K('My phone number is 555-2211','[0-9]','*') AS pr;
[Revision History]:
Rev 00 - 10/27/2014 Initial Development - Alan Burstein
Rev 01 - 10/29/2014 Mar 2007 - Alan Burstein
- Redesigned based on the dbo.STRIP_NUM_EE by Eirikur Eiriksson
(see: http://www.sqlservercentral.com/Forums/Topic1585850-391-2.aspx)
- change how the cte tally table is created
- put the include/exclude logic in a CASE statement instead of a WHERE clause
- Added Latin1_General_BIN Colation
- Add code to use the pattern as a parameter.
Rev 02 - 20141106
- Added final performane enhancement (more cudo's to Eirikur Eiriksson)
- Put 0 = PATINDEX filter logic into the WHERE clause
Rev 03 - 20150516
- Updated to deal with special XML characters
Rev 04 - 20170320
- changed #replace from char(1) to varchar(1) to address how spaces are handled
Rev 05 - Re-write using samd.NGrams
*****************************************************************************************/
RETURNS TABLE WITH SCHEMABINDING AS RETURN
SELECT newString =
(
SELECT CASE WHEN #string = CAST('' AS VARCHAR(8000)) THEN CAST('' AS VARCHAR(8000))
WHEN #pattern+#replace+#string IS NOT NULL THEN
CASE WHEN PATINDEX(#pattern,token COLLATE Latin1_General_BIN)=0
THEN ng.token ELSE #replace END END
FROM samd.NGrams8K(#string, 1) AS ng
ORDER BY ng.position
FOR XML PATH(''),TYPE
).value('text()[1]', 'VARCHAR(8000)');
GO
CREATE FUNCTION samd.Instr8k
(
#string VARCHAR(8000),
#search VARCHAR(8000),
#position INT,
#occurance INT
)
/*****************************************************************************************
[Purpose]:
Returns the position (ItemIndex) of the Nth(#occurance) occurrence of one string(#search) within
another(#string). Similar to Oracle's PL/SQL INSTR funtion.
https://www.techonthenet.com/oracle/functions/instr.php
[Author]:
Alan Burstein
[Compatibility]:
SQL Server 2008+
[Syntax]:
--===== Autonomous
SELECT ins.ItemIndex, ins.ItemLength, ins.ItemCount
FROM samd.Instr8k(#string,#search,#position,#occurance) AS ins;
--===== Against a table using APPLY
SELECT s.SomeID, ins.ItemIndex, ins.ItemLength, ins.ItemCount
FROM dbo.SomeTable AS s
CROSS APPLY samd.Instr8k(s.string,#search,#position,#occurance) AS ins
[Parameters]:
#string = VARCHAR(8000); Input sting to evaluate
#search = VARCHAR(8000); Token to search for inside of #string
#position = INT; Where to begin searching for #search; identical to the third
parameter in SQL Server CHARINDEX [, start_location]
#occurance = INT; Represents the Nth instance of the search string (#search)
[Returns]:
ItemIndex = Position of the Nth (#occurance) instance of #search inside #string
ItemLength = Length of #search (in case you need it, no need to re-evaluate the string)
ItemCount = Number of times #search appears inside #string
[Dependencies]:
1. samd.ngrams8k
1.1. dbo.rangeAB (iTVF)
2. samd.substringCount8K_lazy
[Developer Notes]:
1. samd.Instr8k does not treat the input strings (#string and #search) as case sensitive.
2. Don't use instr8k for "SubstringBetween" functionality; for better performance use
samd.SubstringBetween8k instead.
3. The #position parameter is the key benefit of this function when dealing with long
strings where the search item is towards the back of the string. For example, take a
5000 character string where, what you are looking for is always *at least* 3000
characters deep. Setting #position to 3000 will dramatically improve performance.
4. Unlike Oracle's PL/SQL INSTR function, Instr8k does not accept numbers less than 1.
[Examples]:
[Revision History]:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Rev 00 - 20191112 - Initial Development - Alan Burstein
*****************************************************************************************/
RETURNS TABLE WITH SCHEMABINDING AS RETURN
SELECT
ItemIndex = ISNULL(MAX(ISNULL(instr.Position,1)+(a.Pos-1)),0),
ItemLength = ISNULL(MAX(LEN(#search)),LEN(#search)),
ItemCount = ISNULL(MAX(items.SubstringCount),0)
FROM (VALUES(ISNULL(#position,1),LEN(#search))) AS a(Pos,SrchLn)
CROSS APPLY (VALUES(SUBSTRING(#string,a.Pos,8000))) AS f(String)
CROSS APPLY samd.substringCount8K_lazy(f.string,#search) AS items
CROSS APPLY
(
SELECT TOP (#occurance) RN = ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDER BY ng.position), ng.position
FROM samd.ngrams8k(f.string,a.SrchLn) AS ng
WHERE ng.token = #search
ORDER BY RN
) AS instr
WHERE a.Pos > 0
AND #occurance <= items.SubstringCount
AND instr.RN = #occurance;
GO
CREATE FUNCTION samd.substringCount8K_lazy
(
#string varchar(8000),
#searchstring varchar(1000)
)
/*****************************************************************************************
[Purpose]:
Scans the input string (#string) and counts how many times the search character
(#searchChar) appears. This function is Based on Itzik Ben-Gans cte numbers table logic
[Compatibility]:
SQL Server 2008+
Uses TABLE VALUES constructor (not available pre-2008)
[Author]: Alan Burstein
[Syntax]:
--===== Autonomous
SELECT f.substringCount
FROM samd.substringCount8K_lazy(#string,#searchString) AS f;
--===== Against a table using APPLY
SELECT f.substringCount
FROM dbo.someTable AS t
CROSS APPLY samd.substringCount8K_lazy(t.col, #searchString) AS f;
Parameters:
#string = VARCHAR(8000); input string to analyze
#searchString = VARCHAR(1000); substring to search for
[Returns]:
Inline table valued function returns -
substringCount = int; Number of times that #searchChar appears in #string
[Developer Notes]:
1. substringCount8K_lazy does NOT take overlapping values into consideration. For
example, this query will return a 1 but the correct result is 2:
SELECT substringCount FROM samd.substringCount8K_lazy('xxx','xx')
When overlapping values are a possibility or concern then use substringCountAdvanced8k
2. substringCount8K_lazy is what is referred to as an "inline" scalar UDF." Technically
it's aninline table valued function (iTVF) but performs the same task as a scalar
valued user defined function (UDF); the difference is that it requires the APPLY table
operator to accept column values as a parameter. For more about "inline" scalar UDFs
see thisarticle by SQL MVP Jeff Moden:
http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/T-SQL/91724/
and for more about how to use APPLY see the this article by SQL MVP Paul White:
http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/APPLY/69953/.
Note the above syntax example and usage examples below to better understand how to
use the function. Although the function is slightly more complicated to use than a
scalar UDF it will yield notably better performance for many reasons. For example,
unlike a scalar UDFs or multi-line table valued functions, the inline scalar UDF does
not restrict the query optimizer's ability generate a parallel query execution plan.
3. substringCount8K_lazy returns NULL when either input parameter is NULL and returns 0
when either input parameter is blank.
4. substringCount8K_lazy does not treat parameters as cases senstitive
5. substringCount8K_lazy is deterministic. For more deterministic functions see:
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms178091.aspx
[Examples]:
--===== 1. How many times does the substring "abc" appear?
SELECT f.* FROM samd.substringCount8k_lazy('abc123xxxabc','abc') AS f;
--===== 2. Return records from a table where the substring "ab" appears more than once
DECLARE #table TABLE (string varchar(8000));
DECLARE #searchString varchar(1000) = 'ab';
INSERT #table VALUES ('abcabc'),('abcd'),('bababab'),('baba'),(NULL);
SELECT searchString = #searchString, t.string, f.substringCount
FROM #table AS t
CROSS APPLY samd.substringCount8k_lazy(string,'ab') AS f
WHERE f.substringCount > 1;
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Revision History]:
Rev 00 - 20180625 - Initial Development - Alan Burstein
Rev 01 - 20190102 - Added logic to better handle #searchstring = char(32) - Alan Burstein
*****************************************************************************************/
RETURNS TABLE WITH SCHEMABINDING AS RETURN
SELECT substringCount = (LEN(v.s)-LEN(REPLACE(v.s,v.st,'')))/d.l
FROM (VALUES(DATALENGTH(#searchstring))) AS d(l)
CROSS APPLY (VALUES(#string,CASE WHEN d.l>0 THEN #searchstring END)) AS v(s,st);
GO