Creating multiple rows from a field with a list

OK. I'm being sent some data with a varchar field called my_elements that contains a 'list' of data items e.g. "4950,1,0%4954,2,0%4955,1,1"
I want to separate this into three records with a my_element field:
"4950,1,0"
"4954,2,0"
"4955,1,1"
How can I do this in SQL? Here's a template for what I want:

create table my_table
(
my_id int,
my_elements varchar(8000)
)
insert into my_table values (1,'4950,1,0%4954,2,0%4955,1,1')

-- Now I need some SQL to produce to create rows like these:
-- 1,'4950,1,0'
-- 1,'4954,2,0'
-- 1,'4955,1,1'
--
-- Or even better, as 4 numeric fields per row:
-- 1,4950,1,0
-- 1,4954,2,0
-- 1,4955,1,1

Also, I'd like to aviod using cursors if I can.

Any help appreciated. Thanks!do you have a fixed or variable number of data items?|||OK So this example Sucks But Hey

It Works for your example

SELECT my_id,SUBSTRING(my_elements,0,9) FROM my_table
UNION
SELECT my_id,SUBSTRING(my_elements,10,8) FROM my_table
UNION
SELECT my_id,SUBSTRING(my_elements,19,9) FROM my_table

tehe

GW|||Originally posted by Paul Young
do you have a fixed or variable number of data items?

Yeah, sorry, I forgot to point out, a variable number of data items|||mmmm

wonder if we could work out the entire length of the field ie. total number of seperate records

Then

Iterate through a loop using local variables to build a dynamic SQL Statement incrementing the substring position as we go and adding the UNIONS then execute that.

It's a thought

Is the physical length of the Data Items Consistent ?|||or:

if object_id('TEMPDB..#my_table') is not null drop table #my_table

create table #my_table (
my_id int
, my_elements varchar(8000))

insert into #my_table values (1,'4950,1,0%4954,2,0%4955,1,1')
insert into #my_table values (2,'4850,1,0%4854,2,0%4855,1,1')
insert into #my_table values (3,'4750,1,0%4754,2,0%4755,1,1')
insert into #my_table values (4,'4650,1,0%4654,2,0%4655,1,1')
insert into #my_table values (5,'4550,1,0%4554,2,0%4555,1,1')

declare @.Tbl table(my_id int, my_element1 int, my_element2 int, my_element3 int)
declare @.my_id int, @.my_elements varchar(8000)
, @.RecordSeperator char(1), @.ItemSeperator char(1)
, @.my_element varchar(12)
, @.RecordPosition int, @.ItemPosition int, @.LastRecordPosition int, @.LastItemPosition int
, @.Int1 int, @.Int2 int, @.Int3 int, @.Int4 int

select @.RecordSeperator = '%'
, @.ItemSeperator = ','

select @.my_id = min(my_id) from #my_table
while (@.my_id is not null) begin
select @.my_elements = my_elements from #my_table where my_id = @.my_id

set @.LastRecordPosition = 1
set @.RecordPosition = charindex(@.RecordSeperator, @.my_elements, @.LastRecordPosition)
while (@.RecordPosition > 0) begin
set @.my_element = substring(@.my_elements,@.LastRecordPosition,@.Record Position-@.LastRecordPosition)

set @.LastItemPosition = 1
set @.ItemPosition = charindex(@.ItemSeperator, @.my_element, @.LastItemPosition)
set @.Int1 = cast(substring(@.my_element,@.LastItemPosition,@.Item Position-@.LastItemPosition) as int)

set @.LastItemPosition = @.ItemPosition + 1
set @.ItemPosition = charindex(@.ItemSeperator, @.my_element, @.LastItemPosition)
set @.Int2 = cast(substring(@.my_element,@.LastItemPosition,@.Item Position-@.LastItemPosition) as int)

set @.LastItemPosition = @.ItemPosition + 1
set @.ItemPosition = charindex(@.ItemSeperator, @.my_element, @.LastItemPosition)
set @.Int3 = cast(substring(@.my_element,@.LastItemPosition,len(@. my_element)) as int)

raiserror('ID: %d ''%s'' %d - %d - %d.',0,1,@.my_id,@.my_element,@.Int1,@.Int2,@.Int3)

insert into @.Tbl values(@.my_id, @.Int1, @.Int2, @.Int3)

set @.LastRecordPosition = @.RecordPosition + 1
set @.RecordPosition = charindex(@.RecordSeperator, @.my_elements, @.LastRecordPosition)

end

select @.my_id = min(my_id) from #my_table where my_id > @.my_id
end

select * from @.Tbl|||Wow! Looks good! Thank you Paul.