Comma separated results in SQL

sql-server sql-server-2008 tsql

233,625

Solution 1

Update (As suggested by @Aaron in the comment)

STRING_AGG is the preferred way of doing this in the modern versions of SQL Server.

Original Answer:

Use FOR XML PATH('') - which is converting the entries to a comma separated string and STUFF() -which is to trim the first comma- as follows Which gives you the same comma separated result

SELECT  STUFF((SELECT  ',' + INSTITUTIONNAME
            FROM EDUCATION EE
            WHERE  EE.STUDENTNUMBER=E.STUDENTNUMBER
            ORDER BY sortOrder
            FOR XML PATH(''), TYPE).value('text()[1]','nvarchar(max)')
           , 1, LEN(','), '') AS listStr

FROM EDUCATION E
GROUP BY E.STUDENTNUMBER

Here is the FIDDLE

Solution 2

For Sql Server 2017 and later you can use the new STRING_AGG function

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/t-sql/functions/string-agg-transact-sql

The following example replaces null values with 'N/A' and returns the names separated by commas in a single result cell.
SELECT STRING_AGG ( ISNULL(FirstName,'N/A'), ',') AS csv 
FROM Person.Person;
Here is the result set.
John,N/A,Mike,Peter,N/A,N/A,Alice,Bob

Perhaps a more common use case is to group together and then aggregate, just like you would with SUM, COUNT or AVG.

SELECT a.articleId, title, STRING_AGG (tag, ',') AS tags 
FROM dbo.Article AS a       
LEFT JOIN dbo.ArticleTag AS t 
    ON a.ArticleId = t.ArticleId 
GROUP BY a.articleId, title;

Solution 3

this works in sql server 2016

USE AdventureWorks
GO
DECLARE @listStr VARCHAR(MAX)
SELECT @listStr = COALESCE(@listStr+',' ,'') + Name
FROM Production.Product
SELECT @listStr
GO

Solution 4

If you're stuck with SQL Server <2017, you can use GroupConcat. The syntax and the performance is far better than the FOR XML PATH sollution.

Installation:

-- https://codeplexarchive.blob.core.windows.net/archive/projects/groupconcat/groupconcat.zip
create assembly [GroupConcat] from 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with permission_set = safe;
create aggregate [dbo].[GROUP_CONCAT]    (@VALUE [nvarchar](4000))                                                      returns[nvarchar](max) external name [GroupConcat].[GroupConcat.GROUP_CONCAT];
create aggregate [dbo].[GROUP_CONCAT_D]  (@VALUE [nvarchar](4000), @DELIMITER [nvarchar](4))                            returns[nvarchar](max) external name [GroupConcat].[GroupConcat.GROUP_CONCAT_D];
create aggregate [dbo].[GROUP_CONCAT_DS] (@VALUE [nvarchar](4000), @DELIMITER [nvarchar](4), @SORT_ORDER [tinyint])     returns[nvarchar](max) external name [GroupConcat].[GroupConcat.GROUP_CONCAT_DS];
create aggregate [dbo].[GROUP_CONCAT_S]  (@VALUE [nvarchar](4000), @SORT_ORDER [tinyint])                               returns[nvarchar](max) external name [GroupConcat].[GroupConcat.GROUP_CONCAT_S];

go

Usage:

declare @liststr varchar(max)
select @liststr = dbo.group_concat_d(institutionname, ',')
from education
where studentnumber = '111'
group by studentnumber;
select @liststr

GroupConcat does not support ordering, though. You could use PIVOT, CTE's and windows functions if you need ordering:

drop table if exists #students;
create table #students (
    name        varchar(20),
    institution varchar(20),
    year        int -- order by year
)
go

insert into #students(name, institution, year)
values
    ('Simon', 'INSTITUTION1', 2005),
    ('Simon', 'INSTITUTION2', 2008);

with cte as (
    select name,
           institution,
           rn = row_number() over (partition by name order by year)
    from #students
)
select name,
       [1] +
       isnull((',' + [2]), '') +
       isnull((',' + [3]), '') +
       isnull((',' + [4]), '') +
       isnull((',' + [5]), '') +
       isnull((',' + [6]), '') +
       isnull((',' + [7]), '') +
       isnull((',' + [8]), '') +
       isnull((',' + [9]), '') +
       isnull((',' + [10]), '') +
       isnull((',' + [11]), '') +
       isnull((',' + [12]), '') +
       isnull((',' + [13]), '') +
       isnull((',' + [14]), '') +
       isnull((',' + [15]), '') +
       isnull((',' + [16]), '') +
       isnull((',' + [17]), '') +
       isnull((',' + [18]), '') +
       isnull((',' + [19]), '') +
       isnull((',' + [20]), '')
from cte
    pivot (
    max(institution)
    for rn in ([1], [2], [3], [4],[5],[6],[7],[8],[9],[10],[11],[12],[13],[14],[15],[16],[17],[18],[19],[20])
    ) as piv

View more solutions

233,625

Author by

PriceCheaperton

New to the whole programming web scene, but want to learn with examples and hopefully try and help others in the process. Please bare with me, im a nOOb

Updated on July 02, 2021

Comments

PriceCheaperton about 3 years
I have the following code which will create a comma delimited list for my results:
```
DECLARE @listStr VARCHAR(MAX)
SELECT @listStr = COALESCE(@listStr+', ' ,'') + INSTITUTIONNAME
FROM EDUCATION
WHERE STUDENTNUMBER= '111'
SELECT @listStr
```
The problem is its creating one massive comma delimited line. I need it to return a comma separated list per row.

So if Simon has been part of 2 institutions, then i expect:
```
"INSTITUTION1, INSTITUTION2"
```
As i didnt supply a where clause i expect my results to show up like this for each row in the database.
PriceCheaperton almost 11 years

I cant use 2012 syntax!
Nithesh Narayanan almost 11 years

this is not 2012 syntax. have a try
James S almost 11 years

Just FYI- its the FOR XML PATH('') trick that gets you a groupwise aggregated column, not STUFF - which in this case is just an alternative to COALESCE to join the string to the last one - here's another example of this: stackoverflow.com/questions/5452681/…
Mikael Eriksson almost 11 years

Here is an answer with a bit of explanation of how a query like this works. STUFF is only there to remove the extra comma at the beginning of the string.
wilson over 4 years

Here is another explanation of the answer.
Stewart over 4 years

Really? I thought SQL Server 2016 had removed the misfeature allowing you to leave off the semicolons. Furthermore, the OP's question is about generating a comma-separated list per row. Your code can't do this.
aruno about 4 years

I never ran across needing to do that but check this question stackoverflow.com/questions/51646385/…
Scott Brickey almost 4 years

this only works for 4 items, and will need to be copy/pasted for each additional item... fine perhaps for a fixed number of items, not for dynamically handling any length
aruno about 3 years

Clarification: someone asked about distinct values but looks like they deleted their comment. So the link from April 28th is an explanation on handling distinct values
Adir D over 2 years

You should add a disclaimer that STRING_AGG is the preferred approach on modern, supported versions of SQL Server, and FOR XML PATH should only be used in cases where STRING_AGG can't.