Parsing the comma separated values into a temporary table
(Works in both SQL Server 7.0 and 2000) Declare @OrderList varchar (500) set @OrderList = 'Order1,Order2,,Order3,,,Order4,Order5,' ; drop TABLE #TempList CREATE TABLE #TempList ( OrderID varchar (20) ) DECLARE @OrderID varchar (10), @Pos int SET @OrderList = LTRIM(RTRIM(@OrderList))+ ',' SET @Pos = CHARINDEX( ',' , @OrderList, 1) IF REPLACE(@OrderList, ',' , '' ) <> '' BEGIN WHILE @Pos > 0 BEGIN SET @OrderID = LTRIM(RTRIM( LEFT (@OrderList, @Pos - 1))) IF @OrderID <> '' BEGIN INSERT INTO #TempList (OrderID) VALUES (@OrderID) END SET @OrderList = RIGHT (@OrderList, LEN(@OrderList) - @Pos) SET @Pos = CHARINDEX( ',' , @OrderList, 1) END END SELECT * FROM #TempList t +-+-+-+-+-+ OUTPUT +-+-+-+-+-+ OrderID -------- -- Order1 Order2 Order3 Order4 Order5