SQL Server 2012 - PARSENAME function - To split delimited data

PARSENAME  -  Returns the specified part of an object name.

Syntax :

PARSENAME ( 'object_name' , object_piece ) 

Examples:

DECLARE @ObjectDetail VARCHAR(100) = 'SQLServer.AdventureWorks2012.Sales.Customer'

SELECT @ObjectDetail ObjectDetail

SELECT
PARSENAME(@ObjectDetail,4) [Server],
PARSENAME(@ObjectDetail,3) [Database],
PARSENAME(@ObjectDetail,2) [Schema],
PARSENAME(@ObjectDetail,1) [Table]


--usually Dot(.) is considered as the delimiter by PARSENAME function

DECLARE @pipedelimited VARCHAR(50) = 'Chennai|TamilNadu|India'

SELECT
PARSENAME(REPLACE(@pipedelimited,'|','.'),3)City,
PARSENAME(REPLACE(@pipedelimited,'|','.'),2) State,
PARSENAME(REPLACE(@pipedelimited,'|','.'),1) Country


DECLARE @DateTime DATETIME = GETDATE()
SELECT @DateTime [DATE]
SELECT PARSENAME(@DateTime,1) [DATE]

Reference - http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-in/library/ms188006.aspx