Question

Here the code from my function:

-- Get Country Names
DECLARE getCountriesName CURSOR FOR
    SELECT c.Name
    FROM VocabCountry c
        RIGHT OUTER JOIN ProjectCountryRelations cr
            ON cr.CountryId = c.Id
    WHERE 
        c.Id = @project_id;

-- Finally Create list to return 
OPEN getCountriesName;
FETCH NEXT FROM getCountriesName INTO @Name;
WHILE @@FETCH_STATUS = 0
BEGIN  

    SET @listOfItems = @listOfItems + @Name + ', '
    FETCH NEXT FROM getCountriesName INTO @Name;

END;
CLOSE getCountriesName;
DEALLOCATE getCountriesName;

I am expecting a list of comma separated values, for example, like so:

Canada, United States of America,

I verified that the SELECT returns the countries expected.

Thanks for any help!

Eric

Answer 1

If you’re on SQL Server 2008 or newer, you could easily do this with a single SELECT and some FOR XML PATH magic 🙂

SELECT 
    STUFF(
       (SELECT ',' + c.Name
        FROM VocabCountry c
        RIGHT OUTER JOIN ProjectCountryRelations cr
        ON cr.CountryId = c.Id
        FOR XML PATH('')
       ), 1, 1, '')

That should return a comma-separated list of those country names for you. No ugly and awful cursor needed!