Question

i have a table that has following column

Type
--------
type 1
type 2
type 3

How can i convert the above to a string like (‘type 1’, ‘type 2’, ‘type 3’)

I want to use the output in my t-sql query with IN clause. Something like select * from TableA where SomeColumn IN (‘Type 1′,’Type 2′, Type 3’)

I used to following to come up with output (type 1, type 2, type 3)

select '(' + STUFF((select ', ' + Type from TableA for xml path ('')),1,2,'') + ')'

But dont know how to insert the single quotes.

Answer 1

The usual way is with a subselect:

select * from TableA where SomeColumn IN (
    select Type from TheOtherTable
)

I’m guessing you’d have a where clause on the subselect as well.

Depending on complexity, sometimes you do this with outer joins instead:

select * from TableA a
left outer join TheOtherTable b on a.SomeColumn = b.Type
where b.Type is not null

Which you use depends on the criteria you’re applying to both the records from TableA and what I’ve called TheOtherTable (the one with Type).