Trying to manipulate string such as if '26169;#c785643', then the result should be like 'c785643' - tsql

Question

I am trying to manipulate string data in a column such as if the given string is '20591;#e123456;#17507;#c567890;#15518;#e135791' or '26169;#c785643', then the
result should be like 'e123456;c567890;e135791' or 'c785643'. The number of digits in between can be of any length.
Some of the things I have tried so far are:
select replace('20591;#e123456;#17507;#c567890;#15518;#e135791','#','');
This leaves me with '20591;e123456;17507;c567890;15518;e135791', which still includes the digits without 'e' or 'c' prefixed to them. i want to get rid of 20591, 17507 and 15518.
Create function that will keep a pattern of '%[#][ec][0-9][;]%' and will get rid of the rest.

Answer 1

The most important advise is: Do not store any data in a delimited string. This is violating the most basic principle of relational database concepts (1.NF).
The second hint is SO-related: Please always add / tag your questions with the appropriate tool. The tag [tsql] points to SQL-Server, but this might be wrong (which would invalidate both answers). Please tag the full product with its version (e.g. [sql-server-2012]). Especially with string splitting there are very important product related changes from version to version.
Now to your question.
Working with (almost) any version of SQL-Server
My suggestion uses a trick with XML:
(credits to Alan Burstein for the mockup)
DECLARE #table TABLE (someid INT IDENTITY, somestring VARCHAR(50));
INSERT #table VALUES ('20591;#e123456;#17507;#c567890;#15518;#e135791'),('26169;#c785643')
--the query
SELECT t.someid,t.somestring,A.CastedToXml
,STUFF(REPLACE(A.CastedToXml.query('/x[contains(text()[1],"#") and empty(substring(text()[1],2,100) cast as xs:int?)]')
.value('.','nvarchar(max)'),'#',';'),1,1,'') TheNewList
FROM #table t
CROSS APPLY(SELECT CAST('<x>' + REPLACE(t.somestring,';','</x><x>') + '</x>' AS XML)) A(CastedToXml);
The idea in short:
By replacing the ; with XML tags </x><x> we can transform your delimited list to XML. I included the intermediate XML into the result set. Just click it to see how this works.
In the next query I use a XQuery predicate first to find entries, which contain a # and second, which do NOT cast to an integer without the #.
The thrid step is specific to XML again. The XPath . in .value() will return all content as one string.
Finally we have to replace the # with ; and cut away the leading ; using STUFF().
UPDATE The same idea, but a bit shorter:
You can try this as well
SELECT t.someid,t.somestring,A.CastedToXml
,REPLACE(A.CastedToXml.query('data(/x[empty(. cast as xs:int?)])')
.value('.','nvarchar(max)'),' ',';') TheNewList
FROM #table t
CROSS APPLY(SELECT CAST('<x>' + REPLACE(t.somestring,';#','</x><x>') + '</x>' AS XML)) A(CastedToXml);
Here I use ;# to split your string and data() to implicitly concatenate your values (blank-separated).
UPDATE 2 for v2017
If you have v2017+ I'd suggest a combination of a JSON splitter and STRING_AGG():
SELECT t.someid,STRING_AGG(A.[value],';') AS TheNewList
FROM #table t
CROSS APPLY OPENJSON(CONCAT('["',REPLACE(t.somestring,';#','","'),'"]')) A
WHERE TRY_CAST(A.[value] AS INT) IS NULL
GROUP BY t.someid;

Answer 2

You did not include the version of SQL Server you are on. If you are using 2016+ you can use SPLIT_STRING, otherwise a good T-SQL splitter will do.
Against a single variable:
DECLARE #somestring VARCHAR(1000) = '20591;#e123456;#17507;#c567890;#15518;#e135791';
SELECT NewString = STUFF((
SELECT ','+split.item
FROM STRING_SPLIT(#somestring,';') AS s
CROSS APPLY (VALUES(REPLACE(s.[value],'#',''))) AS split(item)
WHERE split.item LIKE '[a-z][0-9]%'
FOR XML PATH('')),1,1,'');
Against a table:
NewString
----------------------
e123456,c567890,e135791
-- Against a table
DECLARE #table TABLE (someid INT IDENTITY, somestring VARCHAR(50));
INSERT #table VALUES ('20591;#e123456;#17507;#c567890;#15518;#e135791'),('26169;#c785643')
SELECT t.*, fn.NewString
FROM #table AS t
CROSS APPLY
(
SELECT NewString = STUFF((
SELECT ','+split.item
FROM STRING_SPLIT(t.somestring,';') AS s
CROSS APPLY (VALUES(REPLACE(s.[value],'#',''))) AS split(item)
WHERE split.item LIKE '[a-z][0-9]%'
FOR XML PATH('')),1,1,'')
) AS fn;
Returns:
someid somestring NewString
----------- -------------------------------------------------- -----------------------------
1 20591;#e123456;#17507;#c567890;#15518;#e135791 e123456,c567890,e135791
2 26169;#c785643 c785643