Split mySQL column into many - mysql

Question

Ive got a MySQL column that has a set of number that are separated by spaces. There is about 330 spaces..... and they are not all in the same place ( for each set)
Is there a way I can do this automatically, like via a query?
Or is this possible in Microsoft SQL?
Edit 1: I'm afraid I haven't really tried anything, - not to sure what to do.
Here is an example of one of the sets of numbers
3 10 13 18 0 0 175 215 177 173 213 203 592 272 0 175 215 177 173 215 177 172 208 203 592
It's very repetitive.

Answer 1

You can generate a list of numbers, then use those numbers cross joined against your data with SUBSTRING_INDEX to get the individual fields.
Something like this:-
SELECT SUBSTRING_INDEX(SUBSTRING_INDEX(SomeField, ' ', aNum + 1), ' ', -1)
FROM SomeTable
CROSS JOIN
(
SELECT Units.aCnt + Tens.aCnt * 10 + Hundreds.aCnt * 100 AS aNum
FROM
(SELECT 0 AS aCnt UNION SELECT 1 UNION SELECT 2 UNION SELECT 3 UNION SELECT 4 UNION SELECT 5 UNION SELECT 6 UNION SELECT 7 UNION SELECT 8 UNION SELECT 9) Units,
(SELECT 0 AS aCnt UNION SELECT 1 UNION SELECT 2 UNION SELECT 3 UNION SELECT 4 UNION SELECT 5 UNION SELECT 6 UNION SELECT 7 UNION SELECT 8 UNION SELECT 9) Tens,
(SELECT 0 AS aCnt UNION SELECT 1 UNION SELECT 2 UNION SELECT 3 UNION SELECT 4 UNION SELECT 5 UNION SELECT 6 UNION SELECT 7 UNION SELECT 8 UNION SELECT 9) Hundreds
) Sub1
WHERE LENGTH(SomeField) - LENGTH(REPLACE(SomeField, ' ', '')) >= aNum
SQL fiddle here:-
http://www.sqlfiddle.com/#!2/7c43a/4
Then find the person who designed the database table and explain to them about database design / normalisation / indexes.
EDIT - A way that can (just about) do this select, coping with the number of cols. It should return NULL for any col that doesn't exist for that row. Probably best used in a MySQL stored proc. It calculates the max number of cols and then generates some dynamic SQL to get those cols.
SET #sql = NULL;
SET SESSION group_concat_max_len = 1000000;
SELECT GROUP_CONCAT(aField ORDER BY aNum)
INTO #sql
FROM
(
SELECT (Units.aCnt + Tens.aCnt * 10 + Hundreds.aCnt * 100) AS aNum, CONCAT("IF(LENGTH(SomeField) - LENGTH(REPLACE(SomeField, ' ', '')) >= ", (Units.aCnt + Tens.aCnt * 10 + Hundreds.aCnt * 100), ", SUBSTRING_INDEX(SUBSTRING_INDEX(SomeField, ' ', ", (Units.aCnt + Tens.aCnt * 10 + Hundreds.aCnt * 100 + 1),"), ' ', -1), NULL) AS col",(Units.aCnt + Tens.aCnt * 10 + Hundreds.aCnt * 100)) AS aField
FROM (SELECT MAX(LENGTH(SomeField) - LENGTH(REPLACE(SomeField, ' ', ''))) AS MaxDelim FROM SomeTable) Sub1,
(SELECT 0 AS aCnt UNION SELECT 1 UNION SELECT 2 UNION SELECT 3 UNION SELECT 4 UNION SELECT 5 UNION SELECT 6 UNION SELECT 7 UNION SELECT 8 UNION SELECT 9) Units,
(SELECT 0 AS aCnt UNION SELECT 1 UNION SELECT 2 UNION SELECT 3 UNION SELECT 4 UNION SELECT 5 UNION SELECT 6 UNION SELECT 7 UNION SELECT 8 UNION SELECT 9) Tens,
(SELECT 0 AS aCnt UNION SELECT 1 UNION SELECT 2 UNION SELECT 3 UNION SELECT 4 UNION SELECT 5 UNION SELECT 6 UNION SELECT 7 UNION SELECT 8 UNION SELECT 9) Hundreds
WHERE Units.aCnt + Tens.aCnt * 10 + Hundreds.aCnt * 100 <= Sub1.MaxDelim
) Sub2;
SET #sql = CONCAT('SELECT ', #sql,
' FROM SomeTable
');
PREPARE stmt FROM #sql;
EXECUTE stmt;
DEALLOCATE PREPARE stmt;
SQL fiddle for this:-
http://www.sqlfiddle.com/#!2/a28ab2/2