SQL Server 2008 T-SQL UDF odds and ends - tsql

Question

I am trying to take a data string from one column and split it into several different columns in SQL Ser 2008. Eample: Name Account 445566 0010020056893010445478008 AFD 369. I'm useing a borrowed space delimited split function which workS great. The problem is I'm new to T-SQL and have a few questions.
How do I get the function to run through a full table not just a string literal?
This generates a temparary table how do you take these values and insert them into my table? Is it just an insert statement?
Here is the script and usage:
CREATE FUNCTION [dbo].[Split]
(
#String varchar(max)
,#Delimiter char
)
RETURNS #Results table
(
Ordinal int
,StringValue varchar(max)
)
as
begin
set #String = isnull(#String,'')
set #Delimiter = isnull(#Delimiter,'')
declare
#TempString varchar(max) = #String
,#Ordinal int = 0
,#CharIndex int = 0
set #CharIndex = charindex(#Delimiter, #TempString)
while #CharIndex != 0 begin
set #Ordinal += 1
insert #Results values
(
#Ordinal
,substring(#TempString, 0, #CharIndex)
)
set #TempString = substring(#TempString, #CharIndex + 1, len(#TempString) - #CharIndex)
set #CharIndex = charindex(#Delimiter, #TempString)
end
if #TempString != '' begin
set #Ordinal += 1
insert #Results values
(
#Ordinal
,#TempString
)
end
return
end
--USAGE
select
s.*
from dbo.Split('Name Account 445566 0010020056893010445478008 AFD 369', ' ') as s
where rtrim(s.StringValue) != ''
GO

Answer 1

To use a table valued udf against a table, you need CROSS APPLY (or maybe OUTER APPLY depending on how you want to deal with "no rows" from the udf). This applies the row-by-row operation of the udf against your table which itself is a table
SELECT
*
FROM
mytable M
CROSS APPLY
[dbo].[Split] (M.TheColumn) S
To INSERT
INSERT AnotherTable (col1, col2, ...)
SELECT
col1, col2, ...
FROM
mytable M
CROSS APPLY
[dbo].[Split] (M.TheColumn) S