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 Field contains multiple values seperated by comma

Author  Topic 

gosman
Starting Member

4 Posts

Posted - 2006-05-03 : 08:06:33
Hi All

I'm really new to SQL and would appreciate a solution to the following problem.

I have a table that contains 1 record. in that record there is a column called CODES which contains multiple values that are seperated by a comma.

C200,C201,C202,C204,C200,C203,C200,C202,C203,C205,C200,C202,C203,C204,C205,C206,C200,C201,C202

I need a solution to select all values from CODES that are distinct so I end up with the following.

C200,C201,C202,C203,C204,C205,C206

Any help would be really appreciated. Please bear in mind I'm a complet novice.

jsmith8858
Dr. Cross Join

7423 Posts

Posted - 2006-05-03 : 08:46:26
This is a bad database design, which is why it is so difficult to query the data. Can you change the way you are storing this information?
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gosman
Starting Member

4 Posts

Posted - 2006-05-03 : 08:55:55
We are actually in the process of having the apllication redeveloped, but at the moment I'm stuck with the data in this format so I need a solution.
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jsmith8858
Dr. Cross Join

7423 Posts

Posted - 2006-05-03 : 09:11:11
See if this helps:

http://www.sqlteam.com/item.asp?ItemID=2652

That shows you how to take your CSV data and parses it into multiple rows. From there, you can use DISINTCT or GROUP BY to get distinct values. You will then need to concatenate the results back together to get your new CSV strings. If it is at all possible to avoid that last step, I highly recommend it.

I hope that when the application is re-developed you will be able to normalize your tables, then things will be much easier for you. Then your SQL will be much easier and shorter, it will be much more efficient, you can have referential integrity, and so on.
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madhivanan
Premature Yak Congratulator

22864 Posts

Posted - 2006-05-03 : 10:26:41
Also Read about Normalisation
http://www.datamodel.org/NormalizationRules.html

Madhivanan

Failing to plan is Planning to fail
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