Question

In my database, I intend to get the – [TableName] as the first column and all columns of that table in a “, ” (comma followed by space – delimiter) as the second column – for all tables in the DB.

Table A | ColumnA1, ColumnA2, ColumnA3  
Table B | ColumnB1, ColumnB2, ColumnB3
......................................

And retrieve it as an XML

<TableList>  
<TableName>TableA</TableName> <Columns> ColumnA1, ColumnA2, ColumnA3</Columns>  
<TableName>TableB</TableName> <Columns> ColumnB1, ColumnB2, ColumnB3</Columns>  
</TableList>

How should the SQL Query be written?

Answer 1

This will give you the XML you ask for.

select T.name as TableName,
       (
         select ', '+C.name
         from sys.columns as C
         where C.object_id = T.object_id
         order by C.column_id
         for xml path(''), type
       ).value('substring((./text())[1], 3)', 'varchar(max)') as Columns
from sys.tables as T
order by T.name
for xml path(''), root('TableList')

But I think this would return an XML that is easier to handle.

select T.name as TableName,
       (
         select ', '+C.name
         from sys.columns as C
         where C.object_id = T.object_id
         order by C.column_id
         for xml path(''), type
       ).value('substring((./text())[1], 3)', 'varchar(max)') as Columns
from sys.tables as T
order by T.name
for xml path('Table'), root('TableList')

Or perhaps like this.

select T.name as TableName,
       (
         select C.name as ColumnName
         from sys.columns as C
         where C.object_id = T.object_id
         order by C.column_id
         for xml path(''), type
       ) as Columns
from sys.tables as T
order by T.name
for xml path('Table'), root('TableList')