Generate a comma-separated list of numbers in a single string - sql

Question

Is there a way to generate a comma-separated string of a series of numbers where the "begin" and "end" numbers are provided?
For example, provide the numbers 1 and 10 and the output would be a single value of: 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10
10/10/2019 edit explaining why I'm interested in this:
My workplace writes queries with several columns in the SELECT statement plus aggregate functions. Then a GROUP BY clause using the column numbers. I figured using a macro that creates a comma-separated list to copy/paste in would save some time.
SELECT t.colA
, t.colB
, t.colC
, t.colD
, t.colE
, t.colF
, t.colG
, t.colH
, t.colI
, t.colJ
, sum(t.colK) as sumK
, sum(t.colL) as sumL
, sum(t.colM) as sumM
FROM t
GROUP BY 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10
;

Answer 1

You can use a recursive CTE to generate your numbers, and xml_agg to generate your string:
with recursive nums (counter) as
( select * from (select cast(1 as bigint) as counter) t
union all
select
counter + 1
from nums
where counter between 1 and 9
)
select
trim(trailing ',' from cast(xmlagg(cast(counter as varchar(2)) || ',' order by counter) as varchar(100)))
from nums

Answer 2

Check these methods in SQL Server-
IF OBJECT_ID('TEMPDB..#Sample') IS NOT NULL
DROP TABLE #Sample
Create table #Sample
(
NUM int
)
declare #n int
select #n=10
insert into #Sample(NUM)
SELECT NUM FROM (select row_number() over (order by (select null)) AS NUM from sys.columns) A WHERE NUM<=#N
--Method 1 (For SQL SERVER -NEW VERSION Support)
SELECT STRING_AGG(NUM,',') AS EXPECTED_RESULT FROM #Sample
--Method 1 (For SQL SERVER -OLD VERSION Support)
select DISTINCT STUFF(CAST((
SELECT ' ,' +CAST(c.num AS VARCHAR(MAX))
FROM (
SELECT num
FROM #Sample
) c
FOR XML PATH(''), TYPE) AS VARCHAR(MAX)), 1, 2, '') AS EXPECTED_RESULT
from #Sample t

Answer 3

While loop seems appropriate
declare #begin int=1
declare #end int=11
declare #list varchar(500)
if #begin > #end
begin
select 'error, beginning number ' + convert(varchar(500),#begin)
+ ' must not be greater than ending number '
+ convert(varchar(500),#end) + '.' err
return
end
else
set #list = convert(varchar(500),#begin)
;
while #begin < #end
begin
set #begin += 1
set #list = #list + ',' + convert(varchar(500),#begin)
end
select #list
You might want to use varchar(5000) or something depending on how big you want it to get.
disclaimer -- I don't know if this works with teradata

Answer 4

I'm not sure there is a good direct way to generate a series in Teradata. You can fake it a few different ways though. Here's a comma separated list of numbers from 5 to 15, for example:
SELECT TRIM(TRAILING ',' FROM (XMLAGG(TRIM(rn)|| ',' ) (VARCHAR(10000))))
FROM (SELECT 4 + ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDER BY Sys_Calendar."CALENDAR".day_of_calendar) as rn FROM Sys_Calendar."CALENDAR" QUALIFY rn <= 15) t
I've only used sys_calendar.calendar here because it's a big table. Any big table would do here though.

Answer 5

Here's one way to do it in Teradata:
SELECT ARRAY_AGG(src.RowNum)
FROM (
SELECT ROW_NUMBER() OVER() AS RowNum
FROM sys_calendar.calendar
QUALIFY RowNum BETWEEN <begin_num> AND <end_num>
) src
This will give you the output as an ARRAY data type, which you can probably cast as a VARCHAR. It also assumes begin_num > 0 and <end_num> is less than the number of rows in the sys_calendar.calendar view. You can always fiddle with this to fit your required range of values.
There are also DelimitedBuild UDFs out there (if you can find one) that can be used to convert row values into delimited strings.

Answer 6

The cheapest way to achieve your goal is this one (no functions, or joins to tables required):
WITH RECURSIVE NumberRanges(TheNumber,TheString) AS
(
SELECT 1 AS TheNumber,casT(1 as VARCHAR(500)) as TheString
FROM
(
SELECT * FROM (SELECT NULL AS X) X
) DUMMYTABLE
UNION ALL
SELECT
TheNumber + 1 AS TheNumber,
TheString ||',' || TRIM(TheNumber+1)
FROM NumberRanges
WHERE
TheNumber < 10
)
SELECT TheString
FROM NumberRanges
QUALIFY ROW_NUMBER() OVER ( ORDER BY TheNumber DESC) = 1;
Result String: 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10