Question

I have to pull a list of integer IDs from a table using only records that match some criteria. For example:

Select ProdID From Products Where (ProdType='XYZ');

The catch is that I have to return it as a set of comma separated values so I can use it to select items in a multi-select list:

111,231,554,112

rather than as records. I do not want to do this in my C# code – I’d like it to come right out of the database via a query this way. Any ideas?

Answer 1

In addition to @OMG Ponies method, you could also try this COALESCE trick from:

Using COALESCE to Build Comma-Delimited Strings

declare @string nvarchar(255)

select @string = coalesce(@string + ', ', '') + cast(prodid as nvarchar(5))
from products