Before the release of SQL Server 2016, one of the most required solution was for a function which split string. There are many solutions you can find online. Most of these are based on loops that provide poor performance, using XML, or using SQLCLR which in my test provides the best option.

After many years of requests for such a function, Microsoft has finally provided us with a new function called STRING_SPLIT in SQL Server 2016, which should solve our need to split a string. Unfortunately this solution is a half solution at best!

In most cases we need a solution which guarantee the order of the result set. The STRING_SPLIT does not provide this. Thus from 2016, the requests to provide a function for splitting string, has been replaced by shouts to improve the existing function by adding column which present the order of the text.

With that being said, there is a perfect solution using a different approach using another function which was presented in SQL Server 2016. Let's show how simple it is... 

This post does not aim to provide a solution for production but to present some playing with the function STRING_SPLIT which was added to SQL Server 2016, and discuss some theoretical results we can get using the function (Not For Production)