Concatenating Row Values in Transact-SQL

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31 July 2008 Total comments: 49 SQL Home
by Anith Sen
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It is an interesting problem in Transact SQL, for which there are a number of solutions and considerable debate. How do you Performance (16 articles)
go about producing a summary result in which a distinguishing column from each row in each particular category is listed in a
'aggregate' column? A simple, and intuitive way of displaying data is surprisingly difficult to achieve. Anith Sen gives a
summary of different ways, and offers words of caution over the one you choose. Backup and Recovery (18 articles)

SQL Tools (43 articles)

Contents SSIS (13 articles)

● Introduction. Reporting Services (10 articles)

● A core issue.
● Considerations
● Concatenating values when the number of items is small and known beforehand
● Concatenating values when the number of items is not known.
❍ Recursive CTE methods

❍ The blackbox XML methods

❍ Using Common Language Runtime.

❍ Scalar UDF with recursion. Laying out SQL Code

❍ Table valued UDF with a WHILE loop. It is important to ensure that SQL code is laid out the
❍ Dynamic SQL
best way for the team that has to use and maintain it....
Read more...
❍ The Cursor approach.

● Unreliable approaches
❍ Scalar UDF with t-SQL update extension. RECENT BLOG POSTS:
❍ Scalar UDF with variable concatenation in SELECT
The Seven Phases towards Craziness in IT...
● Conclusion.
● References On Becoming Engrossed by the Technology

● Acknowledgements Visibility, the art of being noticed.

Introduction View the blog

Many a time, SQL programmers are faced with a requirement to generate report-like resultsets directly from a Transact SQL query. In most
cases, the requirement arises from the fact that there neither sufficient tools nor in-house expertise to develop tools that can extract the data as a
resultset, and then massage the data in the desired display format. Quite often folks are confused about the potential of breaking relational
fundamentals such as the First Normal Form or the scalar nature of typed values. (Talking about 1NF violations in a language like SQL which
lacks sufficient domain support, allows NULLs and supports duplicates is somewhat ironic to begin with, but that is a topic which requires
detailed explanations.)
Managing Data Growth in SQL Server
By 'Concatenating row values' we mean this: 'Help, my database ate my disk drives!'. Many DBAs spend most of their
You have a table, view or result that looks like this... time dealing with variations... Read more...
...and you wish to have a resultset like the one below:
SQL Server Execution Plans - eBook Download
In this example we are accessing the sample NorthWind database and using the Why is my query running slow? Why isn't my index getting used? In
following SQL order to answer these questions, you... Read more...

Using the Filtering API with the SQL Comparison

SDK
SELECT CategoryId, ProductName Red Gate's SQL Comparison SDK provides a means to compare and
FROM Northwind..Products synchronize database schemas and data... Read more...

SQL Toolbelt 2008: Predominantly an Engineering

The objective is to return a resultset with two columns, one with the Category Task
Identifier, and the other with a concatenated list of all the Product Names The conversion of the Red-Gate tools to be compatible with SQL Server
separated by a delimiting character: such as a comma. 2008 might not seem, on first... Read more...

Audit Crosschecks
In this short article, the second of a 2-part series, William suggests a
solution, using SQL Data... Read more...

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Concatenating Row Values in Transact-SQL

Beginning SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services

Part 1
Steve Joubert begins an in-depth tour of SQL Server 2005 Reporting
Services with a step-by-step guide... Read more...

Ten Common Database Design Mistakes

Database design and implementation is the cornerstone of any data
centric project (read 99.9% of... Read more...

Beginning SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services

Part 2
Continuing his in-depth tour of SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services,
Steve Joubert demonstrates the most... Read more...

SQL Server Full Text Search Language Features

Concatenating column values or expressions from multiple rows are usually best done in a client side application language, since the string SQL Full-text Search (SQL FTS) is an optional component of SQL
manipulation capabilities of Transact SQL and SQL based DBMSs are somewhat limited. However, you can do these using different approaches Server 7 and later, which allows fast... Read more...
in Transact SQL, but it is best to avoid such methods in long-term solutions
Executing SSIS Packages
A core issue Nigel Rivett demonstrates how to execute all SSIS packages in a given
folder using either an SSIS... Read more...

Even though SQL, in general, deviates considerably from the relational model, its reliance on certain core aspects of relational foundations
makes SQL functional and powerful. One such core aspect is the set based nature of SQL expressions (well, multi-sets to be exact, but for the
given context let us ignore the issue of duplication). The primary idea is that tables are unordered and therefore the resultsets of any query that
does not have an explicit ORDER BY clause is unordered as well. In other words, the rows in a resultset of a query do not have a prescribed
position, unless it is explicitly specified in the query expression.

On the other hand, a concatenated list is an ordered structure. Each element in the list has a specific position. In fact, concatenation itself is an
order-utilizing operation in the sense that values can be prefixed or post fixed to an existing list. So approaches that are loosely called Over 150,000 Microsoft professionals subscribe to the
“concatenating row values”, “aggregate concatenation” etc. would have to make sure that some kind of an order, either explicit or implicit, should Simple-Talk technical journal. Join today, it's fast, simple,
be specified prior to concatenating the row values. If such an ordering criteria is not provided, the concatenated string would be arbitrary in nature. free and secure.

Considerations

Generally, requests for row value concatenations often comes in two basic flavors, when the number of rows is known and small (typically less
than 10) and when the number of rows is unknown and potentially large. It may be better to look at each of them separately.

In some cases, all the programmer wants is just the list of values from a set of rows. There is no grouping or logical partitioning of values such as
the list of email addresses separated by a semicolon or some such. In such situations, the approaches can be the same except that the join
conditions may vary. Minor variations of the examples list on this page illustrate such solutions as well.

For the purpose of this article the Products table from Northwind database is used to illustrate column value concatenations with a grouping
column. Northwind is a sample database in SQL Server 2000 default installations. You can download a copy from from the Microsoft Downloads

Concatenating values when the number of items is small and known beforehand

When the number of rows is small and almost known beforehand, it is easier to generate the code. One common approach where there is a small
set of finite rows is the pivoting method. Here is an example where only the first four alphabetically-sorted product names per categoryid is
retrieved:

SELECT CategoryId,
MAX( CASE seq WHEN 1 THEN ProductName ELSE '' END ) + ', ' +
MAX( CASE seq WHEN 2 THEN ProductName ELSE '' END ) + ', ' +
MAX( CASE seq WHEN 3 THEN ProductName ELSE '' END ) + ', ' +
MAX( CASE seq WHEN 4 THEN ProductName ELSE '' END )
FROM ( SELECT p1.CategoryId, p1.ProductName,
( SELECT COUNT(*)
FROM Northwind.dbo.Products p2
WHERE p2.CategoryId = p1.CategoryId
AND p2.ProductName <= p1.ProductName )
FROM Northwind.dbo.Products p1 ) D ( CategoryId, ProductName, seq )
GROUP BY CategoryId ;

The idea here is to create a expression inside the correlated subquery that produces a rank (seq) based on the product names and then use it
in the outer query. Using common table expressions and the ROW_NUMBER() function, you can re-write this as:

; WITH CTE ( CategoryId, ProductName, seq )

AS ( SELECT p1.CategoryId, p1.ProductName,
ROW_NUMBER() OVER ( PARTITION BY CategoryId ORDER BY ProductName )
FROM Northwind.dbo.Products p1 )
SELECT CategoryId,
MAX( CASE seq WHEN 1 THEN ProductName ELSE '' END ) + ', ' +
MAX( CASE seq WHEN 2 THEN ProductName ELSE '' END ) + ', ' +
MAX( CASE seq WHEN 3 THEN ProductName ELSE '' END ) + ', ' +
MAX( CASE seq WHEN 4 THEN ProductName ELSE '' END )
FROM CTE
GROUP BY CategoryId ;

Note that ROW_NUMBER() is a newly-introduced feature in SQL 2005. If you are using any previous version, you will have to use the
subquery approach (You can also use a self-join, to write it a bit differently). Using the recently introduced PIVOT operator, you can write this
as follows:

SELECT CategoryId,
"1" + ', ' + "2" + ', ' + "3" + ', ' + "4" AS Product_List
FROM ( SELECT CategoryId, ProductName,
ROW_NUMBER() OVER (PARTITION BY CategoryId
ORDER BY ProductName)
FROM Northwind.dbo.Products ) P ( CategoryId, ProductName, seq )

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Concatenating Row Values in Transact-SQL

PIVOT ( MAX( ProductName ) FOR seq IN ( "1", "2", "3", "4" ) ) AS P_ ;

Not only does the syntax appear a bit confusing, but also it does not seem to offer any more functionality than the previous CASE approach.
However, in rare situations, it could come in handy.

Concatenating values when the number of items is not known

When you do not know the number of items that are to be concatenated beforehand, the code can become rather more demanding. The new
features in SQL 2005 make some of the approaches easier. For instance, the recursive common table expressions (CTEs) and the FOR XML
PATH('') syntax makes the server do the hard work behind the concatenation, leaving the programmer to deal with the presentation issues.
The examples below make this point obvious.

Recursive CTE methods

The idea behind this method is from a newsgroup posting by Vadim Tropashko. It is similar to the ideas behind generating a materialized path for
hierarchies.

WITH CTE ( CategoryId, product_list, product_name, length )

AS ( SELECT CategoryId, CAST( '' AS VARCHAR(8000) ), CAST( '' AS VARCHAR
(8000) ), 0
FROM Northwind..Products
GROUP BY CategoryId
UNION ALL
SELECT p.CategoryId, CAST( product_list +
CASE WHEN length = 0 THEN '' ELSE ', ' END + ProductName AS VARCHAR
(8000) ),
CAST( ProductName AS VARCHAR(8000)), length + 1
FROM CTE c
INNER JOIN Northwind..Products p
ON c.CategoryId = p.CategoryId
WHERE p.ProductName > c.product_name )
SELECT CategoryId, product_list
FROM ( SELECT CategoryId, product_list,
RANK() OVER ( PARTITION BY CategoryId ORDER BY length DESC )
FROM CTE ) D ( CategoryId, product_list, rank )
WHERE rank = 1 ;

The CASE in the recursive part of the CTE is used to eliminate the initial comma, but you can use RIGHT or the SUBSTRING
functions instead. This may not be the best performing option, but certain additional tuning could be done to make them suitable for medium
sized datasets.

Another approach using recursive common table expressions was sent in by Anub Philip, an Engineer from Sathyam Computers that uses
separate common table expressions for the anchor and recursive parts.

WITH Ranked ( CategoryId, rnk, ProductName )

AS ( SELECT CategoryId,
ROW_NUMBER() OVER( PARTITION BY CategoryId ORDER BY CategoryId ),
CAST( ProductName AS VARCHAR(8000) )
FROM Northwind..Products),
AnchorRanked ( CategoryId, rnk, ProductName )
AS ( SELECT CategoryId, rnk, ProductName
FROM Ranked
WHERE rnk = 1 ),
RecurRanked ( CategoryId, rnk, ProductName )
AS ( SELECT CategoryId, rnk, ProductName
FROM AnchorRanked
UNION ALL
SELECT Ranked.CategoryId, Ranked.rnk,
RecurRanked.ProductName + ', ' + Ranked.ProductName
FROM Ranked
INNER JOIN RecurRanked
ON Ranked.CategoryId = RecurRanked.CategoryId
AND Ranked.rnk = RecurRanked.rnk + 1 )
SELECT CategoryId, MAX( ProductName )
FROM RecurRanked
GROUP BY CategoryId;

On first glance, this query may seem a bit expensive in comparison, but the reader is encouraged to check the execution plans and make any
additional tweaks as needed.

The blackbox XML methods

Here is a technique for string concatenation that uses the FOR XML clause with PATH mode. It was initially posted by Eugene Kogan, and
later became common in public newsgroups.

SELECT p1.CategoryId,
( SELECT ProductName + ','
FROM Northwind.dbo.Products p2
WHERE p2.CategoryId = p1.CategoryId
ORDER BY ProductName
FOR XML PATH('') ) AS Products
FROM Northwind.dbo.Products p1
GROUP BY CategoryId ;

There is a similar approach that was originally found in the beta newsgroups, using the CROSS APPLY operator.

SELECT DISTINCT CategoryId, ProductNames

FROM Northwind.dbo.Products p1

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Concatenating Row Values in Transact-SQL

CROSS APPLY ( SELECT ProductName + ','

FROM Northwind.dbo.Products p2
WHERE p2.CategoryId = p1.CategoryId
ORDER BY ProductName
FOR XML PATH('') ) D ( ProductNames )

You may notice a comma at the end of the concatenated string, which you can remove using a STUFF, SUBSTRING or LEFT function.
While the above methods are deemed reliable by many at the time of writing, there is no guarantee that it will stay that way, given that the internal
workings and evaluation rules of FOR XML PATH() expression in correlated subqueries are not well documented.

Using Common Language Runtime

Though this article is about approaches using Transact SQL, this section is included due to the popularity of CLR aggregates in SQL 2005. It not
only empowers the CLR programmer with new options for database development, but also, in some cases, they work at least as well as native
Transact SQL approaches.

If you are familiar with .NET languages, SQL 2005 offers a convenient way to create user defined aggregate functions using C#, VB.NET or
similar languages that are supported by the Common Language Runtime (CLR). Here is an example of a string concatenate aggregate function
written using C#.

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Data.SqlTypes;
using System.IO;
using Microsoft.SqlServer.Server;

[Serializable]
[SqlUserDefinedAggregate(Format.UserDefined, MaxByteSize=8000)]
public struct strconcat : IBinarySerialize{
private List values;

public void Init() {

this.values = new List();
}

public void Accumulate(SqlString value) {

this.values.Add(value.Value);
}
public void Merge(strconcat value) {
this.values.AddRange(value.values.ToArray());
}
public SqlString Terminate() {
return new SqlString(string.Join(", ", this.values.ToArray()));
}

public void Read(BinaryReader r) {

int itemCount = r.ReadInt32();
this.values = new List(itemCount);
for (int i = 0; i <= itemCount - 1; i++) {
this.values.Add(r.ReadString());
}
}

public void Write(BinaryWriter w) {

w.Write(this.values.Count);
foreach (string s in this.values) {
w.Write(s);
}
}
}

Once you build and deploy this assembly on the server, you should be able to execute your concatenation query as:

SELECT CategoryId,
dbo.strconcat(ProductName)
FROM Products
GROUP BY CategoryId ;

If you are a total newbie on CLR languages, and would like to learn more about developing database solutions using CLR languages, consider
starting at Introduction to Common Language Runtime (CLR) Integration

Scalar UDF with recursion

Recursive functions in t-SQL have a drawback that the maximum nesting level is 32. So this approach is applicable only for smaller datasets,
especially when the number of items within a group, that needs to be concatenated, is less than 32.

CREATE FUNCTION udf_recursive ( @cid INT, @i INT )

RETURNS VARCHAR(8000) AS BEGIN
DECLARE @r VARCHAR(8000), @l VARCHAR(8000)
SELECT @i = @i - 1, @r = ProductName + ', '
FROM Northwind..Products p1
WHERE CategoryId = @cid
AND @i = ( SELECT COUNT(*) FROM Northwind..Products p2
WHERE p2.CategoryId = p1.CategoryId
AND p2.ProductName <= p1.ProductName ) ;
IF @i > 0 BEGIN
EXEC @l = dbo.udf_recursive @cid, @i ;
SET @r = @l + @r ;
END
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Concatenating Row Values in Transact-SQL

RETURN @r ;
END

This function can be invoked as follows:

SELECT CategoryId,
dbo.udf_recursive( CategoryId, COUNT(ProductName) )
FROM Northwind..Products
GROUP BY CategoryId ;

Table valued UDF with a WHILE loop

This approach is based on the idea by Linda Wierzbecki where a table variable with three columns is used within a table-valued UDF. The first
column represents the group, second represents the currently processing value within a group and the third represents the concatenated list of
values.

CREATE FUNCTION udf_tbl_Concat() RETURNS @t TABLE(

CategoryId INT,
Product VARCHAR(40),
list VARCHAR(8000) )
BEGIN
INSERT @t (CategoryId, Product, list)
SELECT CategoryId, MIN(ProductName), MIN(ProductName)
FROM Products
GROUP BY CategoryId
WHILE ( SELECT COUNT(Product) FROM @t ) > 0 BEGIN
UPDATE t
SET list = list + COALESCE(
( SELECT ', ' + MIN( ProductName )
FROM Northwind..Products
WHERE Products.CategoryId = t.CategoryId
AND Products.ProductName > t.Product), ''),
Product = ( SELECT MIN(ProductName)
FROM Northwind..Products
WHERE Products.CategoryId = t.CategoryId
AND Products.ProductName > t.Product )
FROM @t t END
RETURN
END

The usage of the above function can be like:

SELECT CategoryId, list AS Products

FROM udf_tbl_Concat() ;

Dynamic SQL

This approach is a variation of the kludge often known using the nickname of ‘dynamic cross tabulation’. There is enough literature out there
which demonstrates the drawbacks and implications of using Dynamic SQL. A popular one, at least from Transact SQL programmer’s
perspective, is Erland's Curse and Blessings of Dynamic SQL. The Dynamic SQL approaches can be developed based on creating a Transact
SQL query string based on the number of groups and then use a series of CASE expressions or ROW_NUMBER() function to pivot the data for
concatenation.

DECLARE @r VARCHAR(MAX), @n INT, @i INT

SELECT @i = 1,
@r = 'SELECT CategoryId, ' + CHAR(13),
@n = (SELECT TOP 1 COUNT( ProductName )
FROM Northwind..Products
GROUP BY CategoryId
ORDER BY COUNT( ProductName ) DESC ) ;
WHILE @i <= @n BEGIN
SET @r = @r +
CASE WHEN @i = 1
THEN 'MAX( CASE Seq WHEN ' + CAST( @i AS VARCHAR ) + '
THEN ProductName
ELSE SPACE(0) END ) + ' + CHAR(13)
WHEN @i = @n
THEN 'MAX( CASE Seq WHEN ' + CAST( @i AS VARCHAR ) + '
THEN '', '' + ProductName
ELSE SPACE(0) END ) ' + CHAR(13)
ELSE 'MAX( CASE Seq WHEN ' + CAST( @i AS VARCHAR ) + '
THEN '', '' + ProductName
ELSE SPACE(0) END ) + ' + CHAR(13)
END ;
SET @i = @i + 1 ;
END
SET @r = @r + '
FROM ( SELECT CategoryId, ProductName,
ROW_NUMBER() OVER ( PARTITION BY CategoryId ORDER BY ProductName )
FROM Northwind..Products p ) D ( CategoryId, ProductName, Seq )
GROUP BY CategoryId;'
EXEC( @r ) ;

The Cursor approach

The drawbacks of rampant usage of cursors are well-known among the Transact SQL community. Because they are generally resource
intensive, procedural and inefficient, one should strive to avoid cursors or loop based solutions in general Transact SQL programming.
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Concatenating Row Values in Transact-SQL

DECLARE @tbl TABLE (id INT PRIMARY KEY, list VARCHAR(8000))

SET NOCOUNT ON
DECLARE @c INT, @p VARCHAR(8000), @cNext INT, @pNext VARCHAR(40)
DECLARE c CURSOR FOR
SELECT CategoryId, ProductName
FROM Northwind..Products
ORDER BY CategoryId, ProductName ;
OPEN c ;
FETCH NEXT FROM c INTO @cNext, @pNext ;
SET @c = @cNext ;
WHILE @@FETCH_STATUS = 0 BEGIN
IF @cNext > @c BEGIN
INSERT @tbl SELECT @c, @p ;
SELECT @p = @PNext, @c = @cNext ;
END ELSE
SET @p = COALESCE(@p + ',', SPACE(0)) + @pNext ;
FETCH NEXT FROM c INTO @cNext, @pNext
END
INSERT @tbl SELECT @c, @p ;
CLOSE c ;
DEALLOCATE c ;
SELECT * FROM @tbl ;

Unreliable approaches

This section details a couple of notorious methods often publicized by some in public forums. The problem with these methods is that they rely on
the physical implementation model; changes in indexes, statistics etc or even a change of a simple expression in the SELECT list or ORDER BY
clause can change the output. Also these are undocumented, unsupported and unreliable to the point where one can consistently demonstrate
failures. Therefore these methods are not recommended at all for production mode systems.

Scalar UDF with t-SQL update extension

It is rare for the usage of an expression that involves a column, a variable and an expression in the SET clause in an UPDATE statement to
appear intuitive. However, in general, the optimizer often seems to process these values in the order of materialization, either in the internal work
tables or any other storage structures.

CREATE FUNCTION udf_update_concat (@CategoryId INT)

RETURNS VARCHAR(MAX) AS
BEGIN
DECLARE @t TABLE(p VARCHAR(40));
DECLARE @r VARCHAR(MAX) ;
SET @r = SPACE(0) ;
INSERT @t ( p ) SELECT ProductName FROM Northwind..Products
WHERE CategoryId = @CategoryId ;
IF @@ROWCOUNT > 0
UPDATE @t
SET @r = @r + p + ',' ;
RETURN(@r)
END

Here is how to use this function:

SELECT CategoryId, dbo.udf_update_concat(CategoryId)

FROM Northwind..Products
GROUP BY CategoryId ;

Again, it is important to consider that lack of physical independence that is being exploited here before using or recommending this as a usable
and meaningful solution.

Scalar UDF with variable concatenation in SELECT

This is an approach purely dependent on the physical implementation and internal access paths. Before using this approach, make sure to refer
to the relevant knowledgebase article.

CREATE FUNCTION dbo.udf_select_concat ( @c INT )

RETURNS VARCHAR(MAX) AS BEGIN
DECLARE @p VARCHAR(MAX) ;
SET @p = '' ;
SELECT @p = @p + ProductName + ','
FROM Northwind..Products
WHERE CategoryId = @c ;
RETURN @p
END

And, as for its usage:

SELECT CategoryId, dbo.udf_select_concat( CategoryId )

FROM Northwind..Products
GROUP BY CategoryId ;

Conclusion

Regardless of how it is used, "aggregate concatenation" of row values in Transact SQL, especially when there is a grouping, is not a simple
routine. You need to consider carefully the circumstances before you choose one method over another. The most logical choice would to have a
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Concatenating Row Values in Transact-SQL

built-in operator with optional configurable parameters that can do the concatenation of the values depending on the type. Till then, reporting
requirements and external data export routines will have to rely on such Transact SQL programming hacks.

References

● PRB: Execution Plan and Results of Aggregate Concatenation Queries Depend Upon Expression Location
● Northwind and pubs Sample Databases for SQL Server 2000
● The Curse and Blessings of Dynamic SQL
● Introduction to Common Language Runtime (CLR) Integration

Acknowledgements

Umachandar Jayachandran, Linda Wierzbecki, Bruce Margolin, Roy Harvey, Eugene Kogan, Vadim Tropashko, Anub Philip.

This article has been viewed 76017 times.

Author profile: Anith Sen

Anith S Larson specializes in data management primarily using SQL Server. From the mid 90s, he has been working on a variety of database
design and systems development projects for clients primarily in wealth management and financial services industry. He resides in Lakeland, TN.

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Subject: My Solution
Posted by: DaveTheWave (view profile)
Posted on: Thursday, July 31, 2008 at 3:49 PM
Message: I use the following. This is not completely my code. I found most if not nearly all of this on the
net.

CREATE TABLE ParameterKeys

(
ParameterKey INT IDENTITY
PRIMARY KEY,
DateCreated DATETIME NOT NULL
)

CREATE TABLE Param_Concatenation

(
ParameterKey INT REFERENCES ParameterKeys
(ParameterKey)
ON DELETE CASCADE,
ValueKey VARCHAR(50) NOT NULL,
ValueSubKey1 VARCHAR(50) NULL,
ValueSubKey2 VARCHAR(50) NULL,
Value VARCHAR(50) NOT NULL
)
GO
CREATE PROCEDURE Param_GetKey
@ParameterKey INT OUTPUT
AS
DELETE FROM ParameterKeys
WHERE DateCreated < DATEADD(DAY, -7, GETDATE())
INSERT INTO ParameterKeys
(DateCreated)
VALUES (GETDATE())
SET @ParameterKey = SCOPE_IDENTITY()
GO

CREATE PROCEDURE Param_DeleteKey @ParameterKey INT

AS

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Concatenating Row Values in Transact-SQL

DELETE FROM ParameterKeys

WHERE ParameterKey = @ParameterKey
GO

CREATE FUNCTION fn_Concatenate

(
@ParameterKey INT,
@ValueKey VARCHAR(50),
@ValueSubKey1 VARCHAR(50),
@ValueSubKey2 VARCHAR(50),
@Delimiter VARCHAR(50)
)
RETURNS VARCHAR(8000)
AS BEGIN
DECLARE @tempTable TABLE (value VARCHAR(50))
DECLARE @result VARCHAR(8000)
SET @result = 'PlaceHolderDummyText'

INSERT @tempTable
SELECT Value
FROM Param_Concatenation
WHERE ParameterKey = @ParameterKey
AND ValueKey = @ValueKey
AND ValueSubKey1 = @ValueSubKey1
AND ValueSubKey2 = @ValueSubKey2
ORDER BY Value ASC

IF @@ROWCOUNT > 0
UPDATE @tempTable
SET @result = @result + @Delimiter + '
' + value

RETURN (REPLACE(
REPLACE(@result,
'PlaceHolderDummyText, ', ''),
'PlaceHolderDummyText',
'' )
)
END
/**
USAGE
If the ORDERSDETAIL table contains the following
data:

ORDERID FROM_TYPE FROM_COL ...

...
65748 99 5186
65748 99 5803
65748 99 5804
65748 99 5806
65748 99 5808
65748 99 5811
65748 99 5812
65748 99 9916
65748 99 9919
65748 99 9920
44055 99 5186
44055 99 5803
44055 99 5804
44055 99 5805
44055 99 5806
44055 99 5808
44055 99 5809
44055 99 5810
44055 99 5811
44055 99 5812
...
*/

DECLARE @ParameterKey INT

EXEC dbo.Param_GetKey @ParameterKey OUTPUT

INSERT INTO Param_Concatenation

SELECT DISTINCT
ParameterKey = @ParameterKey,
ValueKey = od.ORDERID,
ValueSubKey1 = 'FROM_TYPE',
ValueSubKey2 = 'x',
Value = od.FROM_COL
FROM ORDERSDETAIL od
WHERE od.ORDERID IN ('65748','44055')

SELECT dbo.fn_Concatenate( @ParameterKey,

'65748',

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Concatenating Row Values in Transact-SQL

'FROM_TYPE',
'x',
',')
SELECT dbo.fn_Concatenate( @ParameterKey,
'44055',
'FROM_TYPE',
'x',
',')

--Would product the following output

--Order 65748 would results will be:
---5186, 5803, 5804, 5806, 5808, 5811, 5812, 9916,
9919, 9920
--Order 44055 would results will be:
---5186, 5803, 5804, 5805, 5806, 5808, 5809, 5810,
5811, 5812

Subject: Ooh! This looks fun

Posted by: Phil Factor (view profile)
Posted on: Thursday, July 31, 2008 at 4:16 PM
Message: Here is my method. It works in both SQL Server 2000 and 2005. Goodness me, Anith, you're
going to hate it.

DECLARE @accumulation VARCHAR(7000),

--variable used for accumulating lists
@CategoryID INT
--variable used for keeping tabs on the GROUPING id

DECLARE @grouping TABLE--temporary table

(
MyID INT IDENTITY(1, 1) PRIMARY KEY,
CategoryID INT,
ProductName VARCHAR(255),
accumulation VARCHAR(7000)--used to collect the
list
)
INSERT INTO @Grouping --insert raw result you want a
GROUPING of
(CategoryID, ProductName)
SELECT CategoryID, ProductName
FROM Northwind..Products
ORDER BY CategoryID, ProductName

UPDATE @grouping --and update the table, doing the

accumulation.
SET @Accumulation = [accumulation]
= COALESCE(
CASE WHEN CategoryID <> COALESCE
(@CategoryID, 0)
THEN '' + productName
ELSE LEFT(@Accumulation + ',' +
productName, 7000)
END,
''),
@CategoryID = CategoryID

SELECT CategoryID, MAX(accumulation)

FROM @grouping
GROUP BY CategoryID
ORDER BY CategoryID

Subject: CLR methods

Posted by: Adam Machanic (view profile)
Posted on: Friday, August 01, 2008 at 9:09 AM
Message: Nice to see you here, Anith!

Regarding the CLR method, if you're not afraid to work with some in-memory structures you
can both greatly improve performance and exceed the 8000-byte barrier. I suspect that FOR
XML PATH will still deliver better performance in many cases, though.

One caveat of FOR XML PATH method is the issue of "entitization." Try the following:---
SELECT
n + ',' AS [text()]
FROM
(
SELECT 'a<b' AS n
UNION ALL
SELECT 'b>a'
) r
FOR XML PATH('')
---

...

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TO fix this problem we need to play some rather annoying games:

---
SELECT
(
SELECT
(
SELECT
n + ',' AS [text()]
FROM
(
SELECT 'a<b' AS n
UNION ALL
SELECT 'b>a'
) r
FOR XML PATH(''), TYPE
) AS concat
FOR XML RAW, TYPE
).value('/row[1]/concat[1]', 'varchar(max)')
---

<plug>
I wrote about the CLR method in detail in "Expert SQL Server 2005 Development" (Apress,
2007)
</plug>

Subject: Re: Ooh! This looks fun

Posted by: Anith Sen (not signed in)
Posted on: Friday, August 01, 2008 at 9:31 AM
Message: Good job, Phil.

Since you are using a table variable you have control over the underlying indexes and so you
don't have to worry about somebody else changing them and affecting the output.

I never completely understood the underlying evaluation scheme in t-SQL UPDATE

EXTENSION. Is it right to left, all at once, random, I have no idea. Regardless, it seems to
work fine here.

Another concern is the INSERT .. SELECT statement with an ORDER BY clause. Again, in
this case, since you are using a table variable it seems like there shouldn't be any problems.
There has been several online discussions (for instance, http://tinyurl.com/67yovl) and I
believe the consensus now is that it should work as expected.

Subject: Re: CLR methods

Posted by: Anith Sen (not signed in)
Posted on: Friday, August 01, 2008 at 10:18 AM
Message: Hello Adam,

That is an excellent point. Rather than using REPLACE function, it is better to have the value
method of the xml type. One issue seems to be, as you said, the "annoying games" with
multiple levels of derivation. I am not completed sure how to proceed when there is a grouping
column; Do you include the grouped column as an element in your xml value like:

SELECT categoryid, Products

FROM ( SELECT p1.CategoryId,
( SELECT ProductName + ','
FROM Northwind.dbo.Products p2
WHERE p2.CategoryId = p1.CategoryId
ORDER BY ProductName
FOR XML PATH(''), TYPE, ELEMENTS,
ROOT ('productname') ) AS Products
FROM Northwind.dbo.Products p1
GROUP BY CategoryId ) AS list FOR XML RAW, TYPE

Thanks

Subject: grouping
Posted by: Adam Machanic (view profile)
Posted on: Friday, August 01, 2008 at 1:41 PM
Message: Agreed, grouping is a problem, but not just with XML -- virtually all of these solutions (except
the cursor and CLR UDA) have quite a bit of unnecessary overhead because the engine
doesn't support this stuff.

Regarding cursors, yet another option is a CLR stored procedure. You can read the data with
SqlDataReader, do the concatenation with StringBuilder, and send all of the results back to the
caller in a single rowset rather than stuffing them into a temp table. Much, much more efficient
than a T-SQL cursor.

Subject: Good article

Posted by: PedroJ (not signed in)

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Concatenating Row Values in Transact-SQL

Posted on: Saturday, August 02, 2008 at 12:19 AM

Message: This is a useful article. Some methods are very new to me.

Subject: Great article

Posted by: Anonymous (not signed in)
Posted on: Thursday, August 07, 2008 at 2:28 AM
Message: Recursive CTE methods is bit hard to understand

Subject: Here is another way of doing it

Posted by: Phil Factor (view profile)
Posted on: Thursday, August 07, 2008 at 8:56 AM
Message: This method works in SQL Server 2000 upwards. As you'll see, it goes about it quite a
different, slightly cheating, way. As far as I know, Robyn and I invented it, though it took three
cups of coffee.

DECLARE @list VARCHAR(MAX)

SELECT @List=COALESCE(@list+',','')
+'|'+CONVERT(VARCHAR(5),CategoryID)
+'|'+ productName+'|'+CONVERT(VARCHAR(5),
CategoryID) +'|'
FROM northwind..products ORDER BY categoryID,
productName

SELECT CATEGORYid,
[Product List]=LEFT(members,CHARINDEX(',|',members
+',|')-1) FROM
(
SELECT categoryID, 'members'=
REPLACE(
SUBSTRING(list,
CHARINDEX('|'+CONVERT(VARCHAR(5),
CategoryID)+'|',list),8000),
'|'+CONVERT(VARCHAR(5),CategoryID)+'|',
'')
FROM (SELECT 'list'=@List)f
CROSS JOIN (
SELECT categoryID FROM northwind..products GROUP
BY categoryID
)Categories
)g

Subject: another approach...

Posted by: rudy (not signed in)
Posted on: Thursday, August 07, 2008 at 10:31 AM
Message: [code]SELECT CategoryId
, GROUP_CONCAT(ProductName) AS ProductList
FROM Northwind..Products
GROUP
BY CategoryId[/code]

oh, wait, this how you do it in MySQL

stupid open sores databases, making things easy!!!

;o)

Subject: Re: another approach...

Posted by: Adam Machanic (view profile)
Posted on: Thursday, August 07, 2008 at 2:40 PM
Message: Open sores? Sounds like a product I'd rather avoid.

Subject: Excellent Article

Posted by: TimothyAWiseman (not signed in)
Posted on: Thursday, August 07, 2008 at 4:52 PM
Message: Excellent article and it had some techniques I had never considered before.

Jeff Moden approached the same topic from a purely performance standpoint in: http://www.
sqlservercentral.com/articles/Test+Data/61572/

And some of the CTE portion is similar to http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/CTE/62404/

though that focuses on readability.

Anith, your article was extremely thorough and enlightening.

Subject: Re: Here is another way of doing it

Posted by: Anith Sen (not signed in)
Posted on: Monday, August 11, 2008 at 1:03 PM

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Message: That is a new one, Phil. And a good one:-) I see you build the "big" list and then split it up.

Question, what happens if I change the ORDER BY clause as the following and why?

ORDER BY LEFT( categoryID, 5 ) , productName

Subject: Re: Excellent Article

Posted by: Anith Sen (not signed in)
Posted on: Monday, August 11, 2008 at 1:10 PM
Message: Thanks for the links, Timothy. And for those comments as well :-)

Subject: Re: : Here is another way of doing it

Posted by: Phil Factor (view profile)
Posted on: Monday, August 11, 2008 at 2:01 PM
Message: Simple concatenation isn't always reliable. There are circumstances where it simply doesn't
happen. This can vary from one release of SQL Server to another. I sometimes wish they'd tie
it down! In the case you mention, there is no supported order for the concatenation to occur.
The use of an expression in the ORDER BY forces a different execution plan which produces
an indeterminate order for the concatenation, presumably because the order-by is postponed
until after the concatenation is performed.

I was brought up to believe that the 'order by' parameter should always be one of those in the
result set. I'm not sure if that would help if the order by parameter was the result of a function.

My own experience is that a simple SQL-92 query will result in a correct concatenation. The
'Sybase' update will also usually work reliably, but occasionally needs a 'tickle'. If you pile in
with the fancy stuff, you run a risk that the concatenation ends up with merely the last string
added to it.

Thanks for a fascinating article. It has certainly taught me several things.

Subject: Excellent article

Posted by: Prashanth Kumar (not signed in)
Posted on: Tuesday, August 12, 2008 at 4:16 AM
Message: This is an excellent article.

Subject: Join and Split

Posted by: mjswart (view profile)
Posted on: Wednesday, August 13, 2008 at 8:18 AM
Message: A very thorough article on Joining/Concatenating strings.

http://dbwhisperer.blogspot.com/2008/06/splitting-and-joining-strings-in-sql.html mentions
joining (using xml path syntax) and it also talks about the inverse task of splitting.

Splitting a comma-separated-values is a common task I think. Hopefully it will become less

common with table valued parameters.

Subject: re: Join and split

Posted by: Phil Factor (view profile)
Posted on: Wednesday, August 13, 2008 at 9:10 AM
Message: http://www.simple-talk.com/sql/t-sql-programming/the-helper-table-workbench/ might give you
a few more ideas on the topic of splitting and joining strings. This article really is more about
the problem of producing a list of distinguishing columns of all rows that are grouped together
by each unique value in a 'Group by' in SQL Server, using concatenation. I've heard it called
'The indexers' grouping.

Subject: join
Posted by: Anonymous (not signed in)
Posted on: Friday, August 22, 2008 at 5:25 AM
Message: ALTER function [dbo].[GetBillStandardFeatures] (
@UnitID int,
@IsStandard bit
)
returns varchar(6000)
as
begin

declare @str nvarchar(4000)

declare @nm varchar(50)
declare @temp varchar(100)
set @str =''

DECLARE RuleList CURSOR FOR

select FeatureID from tblUnitFeature where UnitID = @UnitID
OPEN RuleList

FETCH NEXT FROM RuleList into @nm

WHILE (@@FETCH_STATUS = 0)
begin
set @temp =' '
select @temp = Name from tblFeature where FeatureID in (@nm) and IsStandard =

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@IsStandard
if @temp <> ' '
begin
set @str = @str + @temp + ' <br/> '
end
FETCH NEXT FROM RuleList into @nm
end
CLOSE RuleList
DEALLOCATE RuleList

return @str
end

i am using this way in this i pass the id from the out side and they join with "br" and return the
string

vipul
Cybercom creation (Ahemdabad)
dongavipul@gmail.com
http://dongavipul.blogspot.com

Subject: Recursion and row pairing

Posted by: Cary Hower (not signed in)
Posted on: Friday, August 22, 2008 at 9:20 AM
Message: declare @t table
( CatID tinyint identity(1,1) primary key
, CategoryID tinyint not null
, ProductName varchar(4000) not null
)

declare @Incr tinyint

, @Rows tinyint

insert into @t (CategoryID, ProductName)

select CategoryID
, ProductName
from Products
order by CategoryID
, ProductName

select @Rows = @@RowCount

select @Incr = 1

while @Rows > 0

begin

update l
set ProductName = l.ProductName + ',' + r.ProductName
from @t l
join @t r
on l.CategoryID = r.CategoryID
and l.CatID + @Incr = r.CatID
and (l.CatID - (select min(CatID) from @t where CategoryID = l.CategoryID)) % (@Incr * 2) = 0

select @Rows = @@RowCount

delete l
from @t l
where (CatID - (select min(CatID) from @t where CategoryID = l.CategoryID)) % (@Incr * 2) =
case @Incr when 1 then 1 else @Incr end

select @Incr = @Incr * 2

end

--A function can be created that returns @t without the identity column

Subject: Recursion and row pairing (correction)

Posted by: Cary Hower (not signed in)
Posted on: Friday, August 22, 2008 at 9:23 AM
Message: I apologize for an oversight. The delete statment case was unnecessary. "case @Incr when 1
then 1 else @Incr end" should have been simply "@Incr"

Subject: Recursion and row pairing (correction)

Posted by: Cary Hower (not signed in)
Posted on: Friday, August 22, 2008 at 9:25 AM
Message: I apologize for an oversight. The delete statment case was unnecessary. "case @Incr when 1
then 1 else @Incr end" should have been simply "@Incr"

Subject: Newbie's consideration

Posted by: Marzio Alunni (view profile)
Posted on: Friday, August 22, 2008 at 5:25 PM

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Concatenating Row Values in Transact-SQL

Message: Hi,I have little experience with SQL server and I know almost nothing about CLR but reading
this article I noticed that only the CLR method let encapsulate the concatenation logic in a
separate function.
It seems to me a big pro.
The resulting query have far more grater readability, and avoid the overhead imposed by the
other methods.
I'm only concerned about performance... You think this is unmotivated, and due to my
ignorance of the CLR subject?

Thanks (I Apologize for my poor English... ;P)

Subject: Shamas saeed Considration

Posted by: Shamas saeed (not signed in)
Posted on: Sunday, August 24, 2008 at 11:11 PM
Message: This is good article. You can show row values in one column using , seperated or any other
character. This is good for extra knowledge but one thing must mention the we can concate
these values in another way and i am doing this from year's before.
We can use coleasce function to do this as.

Select @vProductName = COALESCE(@vProductName +',','') + ProductName from Product

Declare @vProductName a variable and return select result in , seperated values.

Subject: Re:Newbie's consideration

Posted by: Anith Sen (not signed in)
Posted on: Monday, August 25, 2008 at 1:11 PM
Message: Marzio,
As far as separating the concatenation logic, t-SQL UDFs should do it just fine. I am not
familiar with the performance factors related to CLR. Perhaps, someone else may chime in,

Anith

Subject: Re: Shamas saeed Considration

Posted by: Anith Sen (not signed in)
Posted on: Monday, August 25, 2008 at 1:15 PM
Message: Shamas,
The method you suggested has some issues -- it can be unpredictable even in some cases,
doesn't return any rows. I mentioned it in the article under the section "Unreliable approaches".
You can find several examples of failure discussed in the archives of google groups.

Anith

Subject: Re: Re: Newbie's consideration

Posted by: Marzio Alunni (view profile)
Posted on: Wednesday, August 27, 2008 at 5:58 AM
Message: Sorry, I was not clear.
When I wrote "only the CLR method let encapsulate the concatenation logic in a separate
function", I meant in a way could by easily reused for every query that need concatenation.
As we can see from your examples, with UDF I can encapsulate concatenation logic for a
specific column of a specific table, so if I need to concatenate another column from another
table I have to write another UDF.
Do you think its a good argument to prefer CLR aggregate on other options?

Marzio

Subject: Re: Re: Newbie's consideration

Posted by: Marzio Alunni (view profile)
Posted on: Wednesday, August 27, 2008 at 5:59 AM
Message: Sorry, I was not clear.
When I wrote "only the CLR method let encapsulate the concatenation logic in a separate
function", I meant in a way could by easily reused for every query that need concatenation.
As we can see from your examples, with UDF I can encapsulate concatenation logic for a
specific column of a specific table, so if I need to concatenate another column from another
table I have to write another UDF.
Do you think its a good argument to prefer CLR aggregate on other options?

Marzio

Subject: new solution

Posted by: niko_san (not signed in)
Posted on: Tuesday, September 02, 2008 at 7:43 AM

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Message: SELECT CategoryId,CAST(ProductName as nvarchar(max)) as ProductName into #Products

from Northwind..Products
order by CategoryId,ProductName

declare @StringID nvarchar(max)

declare @StringData nvarchar(max)
SET @StringData = ''
SET @StringID = ''

UPDATE #Products
SET
@StringData = CASE WHEN CategoryId = @StringID
THEN @StringData + ProductName+','
ELSE ProductName+',' END,
@StringID = CategoryId,
ProductName = CASE WHEN CategoryId = @StringID
THEN @StringData
ELSE ProductName END
select CategoryId,substring(max(ProductName),1,len(max(ProductName))-1) from #Products
group by CategoryId
drop table #Products

Subject: new solution

Posted by: niko_san (not signed in)
Posted on: Tuesday, September 02, 2008 at 8:19 AM
Message: SELECT CategoryId,CAST(ProductName as nvarchar(max)) as ProductName into #Products
from Northwind..Products
order by CategoryId,ProductName

declare @StringID nvarchar(max)

declare @StringData nvarchar(max)
SET @StringData = ''
SET @StringID = ''

UPDATE #Products
SET
@StringData = CASE WHEN CategoryId = @StringID
THEN @StringData + ProductName+','
ELSE ProductName+',' END,
@StringID = CategoryId,
ProductName = CASE WHEN CategoryId = @StringID
THEN @StringData
ELSE ProductName END
select CategoryId,substring(max(ProductName),1,len(max(ProductName))-1) from #Products
group by CategoryId
drop table #Products

Subject: sybase list

Posted by: jengo (not signed in)
Posted on: Thursday, September 18, 2008 at 7:25 PM
Message: table:
id name
-----------
1 test
2 again
1 work
2 better

sybase sql string:

select id, list(name) from table_name group by id

result:
id list(name)
-----------------
1 test ,work
2 again ,better

Subject: Good one

Posted by: Murali (view profile)
Posted on: Tuesday, October 28, 2008 at 3:54 PM
Message: I have learnt lot of things from this artical.

Subject: length limit

Posted by: Chi (not signed in)
Posted on: Thursday, October 30, 2008 at 2:49 PM
Message: It works well and is an elegant solution, but when the result is more 255, the rest is cut off. Any
idea how to work around this?

Thanks!

Subject: Re: length limit

Posted by: Chi (not signed in)
Posted on: Thursday, October 30, 2008 at 2:52 PM

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Message: (I was referring to the For XML Path approach)

Subject: Anonymous Commenting Disabled

Posted by: Chris Massey (view profile)
Posted on: Monday, November 10, 2008 at 5:53 AM
Message: Anonymous commenting has been disabled in this article due to spamming. If you want to add
your comments, I'm afraid you'll either need to to sign in or sign up. Sorry for the
inconvenience.

Subject: Kick Me
Posted by: Lee (view profile)
Posted on: Thursday, December 18, 2008 at 12:06 PM
Message: Fine, I'll paint the target on my T-shirt on this one: I have been using the "unreliable" string
concatenation technique -- "Scalar UDF with variable concatenation in SELECT" -- since I
started out doing Sybase in 1991. Years before, I might add, people began having heart
murmurs over this technique. Over and over, I have been lectured on its "unreliability", but in
seventeen years, I have never seen it break.

But... point taken. It is a good policy not to release code that relies on an unsupported
behavior. I do not think it would be easy for Microsoft to break that particular behavior -- they
would have to change or take away altogether the ability to set a VARCHAR local variable with
a SELECT, and physically do something to keep the implied loop in the SELECT from running.
But that's really beside the point. Thanks for a good article.

Subject: CLR Error

Posted by: DBowlerHB (view profile)
Posted on: Wednesday, February 25, 2009 at 12:58 PM
Message: Great artical Anith!! I really liked the idea of using CLR to add this function so it could be
reused easily. I tried to create the new strConcat function using your example word for word
unfortunatly I'm getting an error when I build the solution.

On the line:
"private System.Collections.Generic.List values;"
The word "List" is underlined with the following error:
"Using the gerneric type 'System.Collections.Gerneric.List<T>' requires '1' type arguments."

Because I am very new to C# I do not know how to fix this issue, and thought I would notify
you that your sample may have a problem.

Any ideas?

~DB

Subject: String Concatenation Challenge/Contest

Posted by: Adam Machanic (view profile)
Posted on: Friday, February 27, 2009 at 12:31 PM
Message: Enjoyed this article?

Good, now go try to solve a T-SQL string concatenation challenge and win a prize:

http://sqlblog.com/blogs/adam_machanic/archive/2009/02/27/t-sql-challenge-grouped-string-
concatenation.aspx

:-)

Subject: Re: Shamas saeed Considration

Posted by: Dennis (view profile)
Posted on: Sunday, March 01, 2009 at 1:44 PM
Message: Like Lee, I use this method a lot. I accept that the order of items in the concatenated list is not
reliable. It doesn't even make sense to Order By on a column that couldn't logically be present
in the result set.

Aside from that, I don't understand any purported dependency on physical implementation,
indexing or the like.

Can anybody explain that or give a test case where the concatenation method doesn't work?

Subject: Actually, variable concatenation in SELECT is Reliable

Posted by: RBarryYoung (view profile)
Posted on: Sunday, March 01, 2009 at 1:47 PM

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Message: For SQL Server 2005 at least, it is not correct to say that variable concatenation in SELECT is
either unreliable or dependent on the physical implementation. The example given is unreliable
because it has an error in that it lacks an ORDER BY clause to insure the proper ordering.
Here is a correct implementation:

CREATE FUNCTION dbo.udf_select_concat ( @c INT )

RETURNS VARCHAR(MAX) AS BEGIN
DECLARE @p VARCHAR(MAX) ;
SET @p = '' ;
SELECT @p = @p + ProductName + ','
FROM Northwind..Products
WHERE CategoryId = @c
ORDER BY ProductName ;
RETURN @p
END

This is all documented and supported straight out of BOL. Finally, the referenced
knowledgebase article is not relevant because it is only for SQL Server 2000 and 7.0.

Subject: Re: Shamas saeed Considration

Posted by: Dennis (view profile)
Posted on: Sunday, March 01, 2009 at 6:32 PM
Message: Like Lee, I use this method a lot. I accept that the order of items in the concatenated list is not
reliable. It doesn't even make sense to Order By on a column that couldn't logically be present
in the result set.

Aside from that, I don't understand any purported dependency on physical implementation,
indexing or the like.

Can anybody explain that or give a test case where the concatenation method doesn't work?

Subject: Variable concatenation in SELECT

Posted by: Anith (view profile)
Posted on: Wednesday, April 01, 2009 at 3:26 PM
Message: RBarryYoung and Dennis,

There are several cases where it fails. Several forum members in Microsoft newsgroups have
posted several examples, at least from version 7.0 onwards. For some examples, see:

http://groups.google.com/group/microsoft.public.sqlserver.programming/
msg/70917b5ca789ea77?dmode=source

http://groups.google.com/group/microsoft.public.sqlserver.programming/
msg/371167d94545e1d7?hl=en&dmode=source

The problem is several people ignore these warnings and keep using them only to find one
day it suddenly stopped working!

Anith

Subject: Much Simpler Way

Posted by: Stephan Koch (view profile)
Posted on: Monday, July 13, 2009 at 4:41 PM
Message: Hi Anith

This is how I do it. Not sure why nobody else sems to do it this way:

-- Initialise variables
DECLARE @values varchar(MAX)
set @values = ''
-- Get the string
Select @values = @values + '[' + ProductName + '],' from Northwind..products
-- Strip out the last comma
select @values = left(@values, len(@values)-1)
Print @values

This code is not entirely complete, since it will fall over when there are no rows in the product
table, but you get the idea.

I use this approach to build values for variable PIVOT clauses.

Subject: Much simpler way part 2

Posted by: Stephan Koch (view profile)
Posted on: Monday, July 13, 2009 at 5:10 PM
Message: Oops - just realised that I was solving a different problem - mine only works for a single group
at a time... sorry for confusion.

Subject: Much simpler way part 2

Posted by: Stephan Koch (view profile)
Posted on: Monday, July 13, 2009 at 5:50 PM
Message: Oops - just realised that I was solving a different problem - mine only works for a single group
at a time... sorry for confusion.

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Subject: Anub Philip's method

Posted by: GeoffS (view profile)
Posted on: Monday, August 03, 2009 at 7:40 AM
Message: Hi, All, first time on this site for me and very, very useful.

I just want to add my positive comment on the method of Anub Philip - for my application, this
runs in less than a second compared to ~2:35:00 (that's 2 minutes 35 sec) for exactly the
same result using the previous CTE method.

The pre-ranking of the records for the CTE was a huge benefit.

The slower method did run quite fast on a simpler data set, but sank on the more complex
table.

Geoff

Subject: i have a problem .. pls solve it

Posted by: suresh123 (view profile)
Posted on: Wednesday, August 05, 2009 at 7:16 AM
Message: Actually i have to run this method on huge table of around 65000 rows, and the column to be
concatenated is ntext field , i cannot change to varchar because of data lose...
when i use this "Scalar UDF with t-SQL update extension"
My notes get truncated ...
Any other method to do my job

Subject: How do I add new lines instead of commas?

Posted by: PeggyScott84 (view profile)
Posted on: Wednesday, September 16, 2009 at 1:46 PM
Message: I am trying to concatenate row values with newlines in stead.
I need to display the query results on a ColdFusion 8 website.

It sounds basic but I have tried using char(10) char(13)

\n, \n\r, \r

tried using <br>, </br>

nothing works.

Any help/suggestion is welcome!

Thanks!

Subject: Common Language Runtime - Error In Solution

Posted by: BugMeNot (view profile)
Posted on: Thursday, November 19, 2009 at 10:35 PM
Message: The code in the "Using Common Language Runtime" section of this article results in the
following error:

Using the generic type 'System.Collections.Generic.List<T>' requires '1' type arguments

To correct this error, replace all references to "List" with "List<string>".

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http://www.simple-talk.com/sql/t-sql-programming/concatenating-row-values-in-transact-sql/ (18 of 18) [1/28/2010 9:10:50 AM]