SQL Concatenate Strings in order of line numbers - sql

Question

I am using SQL Server 2014 Standard.
I have the following query...
SELECT ach.amt, ades.dsline, ades.des
FROM ##ACHTrans ach
LEFT OUTER JOIN apvodes ades on 1=1 and ades.vo_id = ach.vo_id
WHERE ades.voline = '100'
ORDER by ach.apnum, ach.cknum, ach.vo_id, ach.amt desc
Which gives me the results...
+------------+---------------+------------------------------+
| ach.amt | ades.dsline | ades.des |
+------------+---------------+------------------------------+
| 1232.50 | 1 | This is the description for |
| 1232.50 | 2 | The $1,232.50 ACH Amount |
| 245.18 | 1 | This one is for the $245.18 |
| 245.18 | 2 | transactions details |
| 245.18 | 3 | that has four lines of info |
| 245.18 | 4 | in the description. |
| 79.25 | 1 | This $79.25 item has 1 line. |
| 15.00 | 1 | So does this $15.00 one. |
+------------+---------------+------------------------------+
I need a way to snag this info by the ach.amt line, and concatenate the ades.des info for results similar to:
+------------+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Amount | Description |
+------------+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| 1232.50 | This is the description for The $1,232.50 ACH Amount |
| 245.18 | This one is for the $245.18 transactions details that has four lines of info in the description. |
| 79.25 | This $79.25 item has 1 line. |
| 15.00 | So does this $15.00 one. |
+------------+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

Answer 1

This is what string_agg() does:
select ach.amt,
string_agg(des, ',') within group (order by dsline)
from t
group by ach.amt;

Answer 2

Without STRING_AGG you would use for XML PATH like so:
DECLARE #table TABLE (amt MONEY, dsline INT, [des] VARCHAR(1000));
INSERT #table VALUES
(1232.50,1,'This is the description for'),
(1232.50,2,'The $1,232.50 ACH Amount'),
( 245.18,1,'This one is for the $245.18'),
( 245.18,2,'transactions details'),
( 245.18,3,'that has four lines of info'),
( 245.18,4,'in the description.'),
( 79.25,1,'This $79.25 item has 1 line.'),
( 15.00,1,'So does this $15.00 one.');
SELECT
amt,
[Description] =
(
SELECT t2.[des]+''
FROM #table AS t2
WHERE t.amt = t2.amt
ORDER BY t2.dsline
FOR XML PATH('')
)
-- string_agg(des, ',') within group (order by dsline)
FROM #table AS t
GROUP BY amt;
Results:
amt Description
--------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
15.00 So does this $15.00 one.
79.25 This $79.25 item has 1 line.
245.18 This one is for the $245.18transactions detailsthat has four lines of infoin the description.
1232.50 This is the description forThe $1,232.50 ACH Amount

Answer 3

This may not be the prettiest solution but I have had to deal with something similar and used a cursor to concatenate my strings in a temporary table and then used that in my final join statement back to the original table. I used table variables so you can play with it yourself.
Following is a code example you can play with:
declare #tableAmt table (
IDNum int,
Amt Money
)
declare #tableDesc table (
IDNum int,
LineNum int,
Info varchar(10)
)
set nocount on
insert #tableAmt (IDNum, Amt)
values (1,100.00),
(2,125.00)
insert #tableDesc (IDNum, LineNum, Info)
values (1,1,'some text'),
(1,2,'more text'),
(2,1,'different'),
(2,2,'text'),
(2,3,'final')
declare #description table
(IDNum int,
ConcatDesc varchar(30)
)
declare #id int,
#oldid int,
#string char(10),
#finalstring varchar(30)
declare getdata_cursor cursor for
select IDNum, Info
from #tableDesc
order by IDNum, LineNum
open getdata_cursor
fetch next from getdata_cursor into
#id, #string
while ##FETCH_STATUS=0
begin
if #oldid <> #id
begin
insert #description(IDNum, ConcatDesc)
values(#oldid, #finalstring)
select #finalstring = ''
end
select #finalstring = isnull(#finalstring,'') + rtrim(#string) + ' '
select #string = '', #oldid = #id
fetch next from getdata_cursor into
#id, #string
end
insert #description(IDNum, ConcatDesc)
values(#oldid, #finalstring)
close getdata_cursor
deallocate getdata_cursor
select ta.IDNum, Amt, ConcatDesc from #tableAmt ta join #description d
on ta.IDNum = d.IDNum