Question

There are two tables,

Table A

A_ID    A_Field  
1          blah1  
2          blah2  
3          blah3  
........

============================================================

Table B (A_ID is foreign key references Table A’s A_ID)

A_ID  B_Field  
1      a   
1      b  
1      c  
2      a  
2      b  
2      c  

What is the BEST way to get result like below:

A_ID   A_Field   B_Field  
1        blah1       a,b,c  
2        blah2       a,b,c

Thanks a lot for the replies, they all works, however, there is one more request, “For XML” dows NOT work on SQL SERVER 2000, unfortunately my domain service’s DB is SQL Server 2000, is there a simple query work on SQL SERVER 2000?? Thanks!

Answer 1

Try something like (* Full Example* )

DECLARE @TableA TABLE(
        A_ID INT,
        A_Field VARCHAR(20)
)
INSERT INTO @TableA SELECT 1,'blah1'
INSERT INTO @TableA SELECT 2,'blah2'
INSERT INTO @TableA SELECT 3,'blah3'

DECLARE @TableB TABLE(
        A_ID INT,
        B_Field VARCHAR(20)
)
INSERT INTO @TableB SELECT 1,'a'
INSERT INTO @TableB SELECT 1,'b'
INSERT INTO @TableB SELECT 1,'c'
INSERT INTO @TableB SELECT 2,'a'
INSERT INTO @TableB SELECT 2,'b'
INSERT INTO @TableB SELECT 2,'c'

;WITH Vals AS (
    SELECT  a.A_ID,
            a.A_Field,
            b.B_Field
    FROM    @TableA a INNER JOIN
            @TableB b ON a.A_ID = b.A_ID
)
SELECT  p1.A_ID,
        p1.A_Field
        ,STUFF( 
               (SELECT 
                    ', ' + p2.B_Field 
                    FROM Vals p2 
                    WHERE p2.A_ID=p1.A_ID 
                    ORDER BY p2.A_ID 
                    FOR XML PATH(''), TYPE 
               ).value('.','varchar(max)') 
               ,1,2, '' 
          ) AS B_Field 
FROM Vals p1 
GROUP BY    p1.A_ID,
            p1.A_Field

Output

A_ID    A_Field B_Field
1   blah1   a, b, c
2   blah2   a, b, c