Problem with text datatype and UDF - user-defined-functions

Question

I have this great function that parses a field into a pivot table consisting of four columns so I can sort my table accordingly. My only problem now is I can't use the function in a query that also calls a "text" datatype to be displayed in the results. Query runs fine as long as I don't include "spName" which is a "text" datatype. I've tried using cast and convert but neither built-in functions work in this query. thanks.
error:
Pivot grouping columns must be comparable. The type of column "spName" is "text", which is not comparable.
query:
SELECT title, recID, spName, [1] AS [Col1], [2] AS [Col2],[3] AS [Col3],[4] AS [Col4]
FROM (select title, recID, spName from TestTable) t CROSS APPLY dbo.GetNumbers(title) PIVOT (MAX(num) FOR idx IN ([1], [2],[3],[4]) ) AS PivotTable ORDER BY Col1
udf:
CREATE FUNCTION GetNumbers
(
#Numbers NVARCHAR(2000)
)
RETURNS #Results TABLE
(
idx INT IDENTITY(1,1),
num INT
)
AS
BEGIN
DECLARE #NonNumericIndex INT, #NumericIndex INT
SET #NumericIndex = PATINDEX('%[0-9]%',#Numbers)
IF (#NumericIndex > 4) --First Column not there
INSERT INTO #Results VALUES (NULL)
WHILE #NumericIndex > 0
BEGIN
SET #Numbers = RIGHT(#Numbers,LEN(#Numbers)-#NumericIndex+1)
SET #NonNumericIndex = PATINDEX('%[^0-9]%',#Numbers)
IF(#NonNumericIndex = 0)
BEGIN
INSERT
INTO #Results VALUES (#Numbers)
RETURN
END
ELSE
INSERT
INTO #Results VALUES
(LEFT(#Numbers,#NonNumericIndex-1))
SET #Numbers = RIGHT(#Numbers,LEN(#Numbers)-#NonNumericIndex+1)
SET #NumericIndex = PATINDEX('%[0-9]%',#Numbers)
END
RETURN
END
sample data
title recid spname
QW 1 RT 309-23-1 1 This is title 1 words
QW 1 RT 29-1 2 this is title 2 desc
QW 1 RT 750-1 3 This is title 3
QW RT 750-1 4 This is title 4 words

Answer 1

The Text datatype is deprecated and sounds a dubious choice for a name field in any event.
This works for me
IF OBJECT_ID('tempdb..#TestTable') IS NULL
BEGIN
CREATE TABLE #TestTable
(
recid INT PRIMARY KEY,
title VARCHAR(50),
spName TEXT
)
INSERT INTO #TestTable
SELECT 1 AS recid, 'QW 1 RT 309-23-1' AS title, CAST('test1' AS TEXT) AS spName UNION ALL
SELECT 2 AS recid, 'QW 1 RT 29-1', CAST('test' AS TEXT) AS spName UNION ALL
SELECT 3 AS recid, 'QW 1 RT 750-1', CAST('test' AS TEXT) AS spName UNION ALL
SELECT 4 AS recid, 'QW RT 750-1' , CAST('test' AS TEXT) AS spName
END
SELECT recid, title, spName, [1] AS [COLUMN 1], [2] AS [COLUMN 2],[3] AS [COLUMN 3],[4] AS [COLUMN 4]
FROM
(SELECT recid, title, CAST(spName AS VARCHAR(MAX)) AS spName FROM #TestTable ) T
CROSS APPLY dbo.GetNumbers(title)
PIVOT
(MAX(num) FOR idx IN ([1], [2],[3],[4])
) AS PivotTable;