Question

I was wondering how I can pass either an ArrayList, List<int> or StringBuilder comma delimited list to a stored procedure such that I find a list of IDs using IN():

@myList varchar(50)  SELECT  * FROM    tbl WHERE   Id IN (@myList) 

In C# I am currently building the list as a string which is comma delimeted; however when using nvarchar(50) for example, as the type for the param in the stored procedure – I get an error as it can’t convert ‘1,2,3’ to int which it expects between the IN().

Any ideas? Much appreciated.
Pete

Answer 1

You could use a User Defined function such as

CREATE function [dbo].[csl_to_table] ( @list nvarchar(MAX) ) RETURNS @list_table TABLE ([id] INT) AS BEGIN     DECLARE     @index INT,             @start_index INT,             @id INT      SELECT @index = 1      SELECT @start_index = 1     WHILE @index <= DATALENGTH(@list)     BEGIN          IF SUBSTRING(@list,@index,1) = ','         BEGIN              SELECT @id = CAST(SUBSTRING(@list, @start_index, @index - @start_index ) AS INT)             INSERT @list_table ([id]) VALUES (@id)             SELECT @start_index = @index + 1         END         SELECT @index  = @index + 1     END     SELECT @id = CAST(SUBSTRING(@list, @start_index, @index - @start_index ) AS INT)     INSERT @list_table ([id]) VALUES (@id)     RETURN END 

Which accepts an nvarchar comma separated list of ids and returns a table of those ids as ints. You can then join on the returned table in your stored procedure like so –

DECLARE @passed_in_ids TABLE (id INT)  INSERT INTO @passed_in_ids (id)   SELECT      id    FROM     [dbo].[csl_to_table] (@your_passed_in_csl)  SELECT * FROM  myTable INNER JOIN @passed_in_ids ids ON myTable.id = ids.id