Count Values from Comma-Separated Field in MySQL

You can count values from comma-separated field using CHAR_LENGTH() method from MySQL. The syntax is as follows −

SELECT *, (CHAR_LENGTH(yourColumnName) - CHAR_LENGTH(REPLACE(yourColumnName, ',','')) + 1) as anyVariableName from yourTableName;

To understand the above syntax, let us create a table. The query to create a table is as follows −

mysql> create table CountValuesCommaSeparated
   -> (
   -> Id int NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
   -> CommaSeparatedValue text,
   -> PRIMARY KEY(Id)
   -> );
Query OK, 0 rows affected (1.76 sec)

Insert some records in the table using insert command. The query is as follows −

mysql> insert into CountValuesCommaSeparated(CommaSeparatedValue)
values('101,104,1900,46675,7895');
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.16 sec)

mysql> insert into CountValuesCommaSeparated(CommaSeparatedValue)
values('1010,18949,37465');
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.21 sec)

mysql> insert into CountValuesCommaSeparated(CommaSeparatedValue)
values('2010,1201,2743874,7485');
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.42 sec)

mysql> insert into CountValuesCommaSeparated(CommaSeparatedValue)
values('4757,457587,48586,378575,3874765,487565');
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.26 sec)

Display all records from the table using select statement. The query is as follows −

mysql> select *from CountValuesCommaSeparated;

The following is the output −

+----+-----------------------------------------+
| Id | CommaSeparatedValue                     |
+----+-----------------------------------------+
| 1  | 101,104,1900,46675,7895                 |
| 2  | 1010,18949,37465                        |
| 3  | 2010,1201,2743874,7485                  |
| 4  | 4757,457587,48586,378575,3874765,487565 |
+----+-----------------------------------------+
4 rows in set (0.00 sec)

Here is the query to count values from comma separated fields:

mysql> select *,
   -> (CHAR_LENGTH(CommaSeparatedValue) -
CHAR_LENGTH(REPLACE(CommaSeparatedValue, ',', '')) + 1) as TotalValue
   -> from CountValuesCommaSeparated;

The following is the output −

+----+-----------------------------------------+------------+
| Id | CommaSeparatedValue                     | TotalValue |
+----+-----------------------------------------+------------+
|  1 | 101,104,1900,46675,7895                 |          5 |
|  2 | 1010,18949,37465                        |          3 |
|  3 | 2010,1201,2743874,7485                  |          4 |
|  4 | 4757,457587,48586,378575,3874765,487565 |          6 |
+----+-----------------------------------------+------------+
4 rows in set (0.00 sec)