Question

How can I insert values from a comma-separated input parameter with a stored procedure?
For example:

exec StoredProcedure Name 17,'127,204,110,198',7,'162,170,163,170'

you can see that I have two comma-separated value lists in the parameter list. Both will have the same number of values: if the first has 5 comma-separated values, then the second one also has 5 comma-separated values.

• 127 and 162 are related
• 204 and 170 are related

…and same for the others.

How can I insert these two values?
One comma-separated value is inserted, but how do I insert two?

Answer 1

You need a way to split and process the string in TSQL, there are many ways to do this. This article covers the PROs and CONs of just about every method:

“Arrays and Lists in SQL Server 2005 and Beyond, When Table Value Parameters Do Not Cut it” by Erland Sommarskog

You need to create a split function. This is how a split function can be used:

SELECT
    *
    FROM YourTable                               y
    INNER JOIN dbo.yourSplitFunction(@Parameter) s ON y.ID=s.Value

I prefer the number table approach to split a string in TSQL but there are numerous ways to split strings in SQL Server, see the previous link, which explains the PROs and CONs of each.

For the Numbers Table method to work, you need to do this one time table setup, which will create a table Numbers that contains rows from 1 to 10,000:

SELECT TOP 10000 IDENTITY(int,1,1) AS Number
    INTO Numbers
    FROM sys.objects s1
    CROSS JOIN sys.objects s2
ALTER TABLE Numbers ADD CONSTRAINT PK_Numbers PRIMARY KEY CLUSTERED (Number)

Once the Numbers table is set up, create this split function:

CREATE FUNCTION [dbo].[FN_ListToTableRows]
(
     @SplitOn  char(1)      --REQUIRED, the character to split the @List string on
    ,@List     varchar(8000)--REQUIRED, the list to split apart
)
RETURNS TABLE
AS
RETURN 
(
    ----------------
    --SINGLE QUERY-- --this will return empty rows, and row numbers
    ----------------
    SELECT
        ROW_NUMBER() OVER(ORDER BY number) AS RowNumber
            ,LTRIM(RTRIM(SUBSTRING(ListValue, number+1, CHARINDEX(@SplitOn, ListValue, number+1)-number - 1))) AS ListValue
        FROM (
                 SELECT @SplitOn + @List + @SplitOn AS ListValue
             ) AS InnerQuery
            INNER JOIN Numbers n ON n.Number < LEN(InnerQuery.ListValue)
        WHERE SUBSTRING(ListValue, number, 1) = @SplitOn
);
GO 

You can now easily split a CSV string into a table and join on it. To accomplish your task, set up a test table to insert into:

create table YourTable (col1 int, col2 int)

then create your procedure:

CREATE PROCEDURE StoredProcedureName
(
     @Params1  int
    ,@Array1   varchar(8000)
    ,@Params2  int
    ,@Array2   varchar(8000)
)
AS 

INSERT INTO YourTable
        (col1, col2)
    SELECT
        a1.ListValue, a2.ListValue
        FROM dbo.FN_ListToTableRows(',',@Array1)            a1
            INNER JOIN dbo.FN_ListToTableRows(',',@Array2)  a2 ON a1.RowNumber=a2.RowNumber
GO

test it out:

exec StoredProcedureName 17,'127,204,110,198',7,'162,170,163,170'
select * from YourTable

OUTPUT:

(4 row(s) affected)
col1        col2
----------- -----------
127         162
204         170
110         163
198         170

(4 row(s) affected)