Question

in SQL Server, if I have an int variable, how can I write a query that returns the values 1 through the int variable’s value?

So given:

declare @cnt int
set @cnt = 5

What query would return 1 – 5? Is this possible?

Answer 1

An alternative answer to the others already given, maybe not so practical but it may be faster in certain situations.

If you have a known upper bound for the values of @cnt you will encounter (say 1000) you could create a simple one-column table with the first 1000 integers in it, like

val
---
1
2
3
4
...

and then whenever you want a set of integers you could get it using

select val
from integerTable
where val <= @cnt