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Sorting subset strings in a char field in MS SQL 2008 R2

Hi EEE:

A char field contains values like:

AB 23 43 543
AB 5 111 22
AB 5 2 3333
XY 234 1 24
G 112 3434 222 33
45 33 44

In other words, characters (optional) followed by numbers, all separated by variable space(s).
I would like to sort this field by characters first and then the individual number blocks. White spaces of any length determine blocks.

So for example,

45 33 44 would sort before AB 5 2 3333 as it contains no leading set of characters.
AB 5 111 22 would sort before AB 23 43 543 as 5 comes before 23.
AB 5 2 3333 would sort before AB 5 111 22 as 2 comes before 111 (all prior characters are
the same)

Is there a way I can do this in Microsoft SQL 2008 R2?

Qlemo

I daresay that not. The dynamic nature of the sort criteria does not allow for it.

Scott Pletcher

You could pass the string into a function and return a sortable value, but the performance will not be great. How many rows like this do you need to process?

LuckyLucks

ASKER

50K and likely not to exceed the 100K.

ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

Scott Pletcher

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LuckyLucks

ASKER

Hi Scott,

Could you please add some comments so I can understand what the code is trying to do in each block?

Thanks much

Scott Pletcher

First, it's splitting it into separate values with no extra spaces, so:
G 112 3434 222 33
would become:
G
112
3434
222
33
Then it concatenates all the values into one string, as follows:
If the first value has any nonnumeric char in it -- such as "G", like this one does -- the first 10 bytes of that value is left-aligned in the new string:
Gbbbbbbbbb
where b = blank/space.
Then every entry after that is right-aligned into the next 10 bytes:
Gbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbb112bbbbbb3434bbbbbbb222bbbbbbbb33
That is done for each row. Then the concatenated value above is used to sort the rows.

I believe this will yield the final sort order that you want.

awking00

What is the required sort order criteria for the alpha portion? Is it like A,B,C,...Z,AA, AB, etc.which would make the string beginning with a single G sort before strings beginning with AB or should the string beginning with a single G sort after strings beginning with AB because G comes after A?

LuckyLucks

ASKER

Thanks Scott, a couple of last questions:

1. What does the below try to accomplish?

SPACE(10 - ISNULL(LEN([2]), 0)) + ISNULL([2], '') +
SPACE(10 - ISNULL(LEN([3]), 0)) + ISNULL([3], '') +
SPACE(10 - ISNULL(LEN([4]), 0)) + ISNULL([4], '') +
SPACE(10 - ISNULL(LEN([5]), 0)) + ISNULL([5], '') +
SPACE(10 - ISNULL(LEN([6]), 0)) + ISNULL([6], '') +
SPACE(10 - ISNULL(LEN([7]), 0)) + ISNULL([6], '') +
SPACE(10 - ISNULL(LEN([8]), 0)) + ISNULL([7], '') +
SPACE(10 - ISNULL(LEN([9]), 0)) + ISNULL([8], '') +
SPACE(10 - ISNULL(LEN([10]), 0)) + ISNULL([9], '') +
SPACE(10 - ISNULL(LEN([2]), 0)) + ISNULL([10], '')

2. Where is the DelimitedSplit8K function defined?

Thanks

Scott Pletcher

Exactly what I stated above. It puts each column into a fixed 10 byte string from left to right:
1st column = bytes 01-10
2nd column = bytes 11-20
3rd column = bytes 21-30
etc.

A fairly well-known, highly efficient splitter function. Sorry, thought I had posted its code too:

SET ANSI_NULLS ON
GO
SET QUOTED_IDENTIFIER ON
GO
CREATE FUNCTION [dbo].[DelimitedSplit8K]
--===== Define I/O parameters
(@pString VARCHAR(8000), @pDelimiter CHAR(1))
--NOTE: (max) data type will at least double the time to do the split!
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
;
GO