Here is a simple user-defined function to parse a comma separated (or any other character separated) list and return a table of the values in the list. The input variable must be a text data type (varchar). It returns the results as varchar so depending on your needs you may need to convert to int or datetime, etc.
Showing posts with label comma delimited list. Show all posts
Showing posts with label comma delimited list. Show all posts
Wednesday, 4 August 2010
Tuesday, 13 July 2010
A Quick Cheat to Create a Comma Separated List
The select statement below is an easy way of creating a comma separated list within a larger select query without the need for a cursor, user defined function or even a paramenter. It exploits the 'for xml' statement. By not defining any xml elements the column you select gets concatenated into a single line.
In my scenario I have keywords that can be members of multiple adgroups. Since my revenue figures are aggregated by keyword and not broken down by adgroup I need to display all adgroups in the same row as the keyword or I will get duplicate revenue figures.
I owe a lot to the colleague who showed this to me. It's saved me tremendous amounts of time and trouble over the past few years. I hope you find this as helpful as I did.
In my scenario I have keywords that can be members of multiple adgroups. Since my revenue figures are aggregated by keyword and not broken down by adgroup I need to display all adgroups in the same row as the keyword or I will get duplicate revenue figures.
I owe a lot to the colleague who showed this to me. It's saved me tremendous amounts of time and trouble over the past few years. I hope you find this as helpful as I did.
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