下面的示例使用递归CTE

更新18.09.2013

CREATE FUNCTION dbo.SplitStrings_CTE(@List nvarchar(max), @Delimiter nvarchar(1))
RETURNS @returns TABLE (val nvarchar(max), [level] int, PRIMARY KEY CLUSTERED([level]))
AS
BEGIN
;WITH cte AS
 (
  SELECT SUBSTRING(@List, 0, CHARINDEX(@Delimiter,  @List + @Delimiter)) AS val,
         CAST(STUFF(@List + @Delimiter, 1, CHARINDEX(@Delimiter, @List + @Delimiter), '') AS nvarchar(max)) AS stval, 
         1 AS [level]
  UNION ALL
  SELECT SUBSTRING(stval, 0, CHARINDEX(@Delimiter, stval)),
         CAST(STUFF(stval, 1, CHARINDEX(@Delimiter, stval), '') AS nvarchar(max)),
         [level] + 1
  FROM cte
  WHERE stval != ''
  )
  INSERT @returns
  SELECT REPLACE(val, ' ','' ) AS val, [level]
  FROM cte
  WHERE val > ''
  RETURN
END

演示SQLFiddle

建立在@NothingsImpossible解决方案上，或者，更确切地说，评论投票最多的答案(就在接受的答案下面)，我发现下面的快速和肮脏的解决方案满足了我自己的需求-它的好处是完全在SQL域内。

给定一个字符串"first;second;third;fourth;fifth"，比如说，我想获取第三个标记。只有当我们知道字符串将有多少标记时，这才有效——在这种情况下，它是5。所以我的操作方式是将最后两个令牌切掉(内部查询)，然后将前两个令牌切掉(外部查询)

我知道这是丑陋的，涵盖了我所处的具体情况，但我张贴它只是为了以防有人发现它有用。干杯

select 
    REVERSE(
        SUBSTRING(
            reverse_substring, 
            0, 
            CHARINDEX(';', reverse_substring)
        )
    ) 
from 
(
    select 
        msg,
        SUBSTRING(
            REVERSE(msg), 
            CHARINDEX(
                ';', 
                REVERSE(msg), 
                CHARINDEX(
                    ';',
                    REVERSE(msg)
                )+1
            )+1,
            1000
        ) reverse_substring
    from 
    (
        select 'first;second;third;fourth;fifth' msg
    ) a
) b

使用SQL Server 2016及以上版本。使用这段代码修剪字符串，忽略NULL值，并按正确的顺序应用行索引。它也适用于空格分隔符:

DECLARE @STRING_VALUE NVARCHAR(MAX) = 'one, two,,three, four,     five'

SELECT ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDER BY R.[index]) [index], R.[value] FROM
(
    SELECT
        1 [index], NULLIF(TRIM([value]), '') [value] FROM STRING_SPLIT(@STRING_VALUE, ',') T
    WHERE
        NULLIF(TRIM([value]), '') IS NOT NULL
) R

Aaron Bertrand的回答很好，但也有缺陷。它不能准确地将空格作为分隔符处理(就像最初问题中的示例一样)，因为长度函数将空格带在后面。

下面是他的代码，稍微调整了一下，允许使用空格分隔符:

CREATE FUNCTION [dbo].[SplitString]
(
    @List NVARCHAR(MAX),
    @Delim VARCHAR(255)
)
RETURNS TABLE
AS
    RETURN ( SELECT [Value] FROM 
      ( 
        SELECT 
          [Value] = LTRIM(RTRIM(SUBSTRING(@List, [Number],
          CHARINDEX(@Delim, @List + @Delim, [Number]) - [Number])))
        FROM (SELECT Number = ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDER BY name)
          FROM sys.all_objects) AS x
          WHERE Number <= LEN(@List)
          AND SUBSTRING(@Delim + @List, [Number], LEN(@Delim+'x')-1) = @Delim
      ) AS y
    );

declare @strng varchar(max)='hello john smith'
select (
    substring(
        @strng,
        charindex(' ', @strng) + 1,
        (
          (charindex(' ', @strng, charindex(' ', @strng) + 1))
          - charindex(' ',@strng)
        )
    ))

在这里我发布了一个简单的解决方法

CREATE FUNCTION [dbo].[split](
          @delimited NVARCHAR(MAX),
          @delimiter NVARCHAR(100)
        ) RETURNS @t TABLE (id INT IDENTITY(1,1), val NVARCHAR(MAX))
        AS
        BEGIN
          DECLARE @xml XML
          SET @xml = N'<t>' + REPLACE(@delimited,@delimiter,'</t><t>') + '</t>'

          INSERT INTO @t(val)
          SELECT  r.value('.','varchar(MAX)') as item
          FROM  @xml.nodes('/t') as records(r)
          RETURN
        END

像这样执行函数

  select * from dbo.split('Hello John Smith',' ')