Combining SQL Server Stuff statements to get single rows - sql

Question

I have an interesting problem. I have two T-SQL STUFF statements. In this example I have used union. This displays the results in two rows.
What I’d like to do is to combine these results so that it returns a single row. I am using SQL Server 2008 R2. The solution should be able to copy with either stuff statement returning null.
Is there a way to achieve this?
Here is the code
SELECT
(SELECT
STUFF((SELECT (' ' + mod_orders.mod_no + '<br>')
FROM mod_serials
INNER JOIN mod_orders ON mod_serials.mod_id = mod_orders.mod_id
INNER JOIN mod_order_items ON mod_orders.mod_id = mod_order_items.mod_id AND mod_order_items.item_id = 170
WHERE
(mod_serials.serial_id = 62 AND
mod_serials.date_implemented IS NOT NULL)
ORDER BY mod_serials.serial_id
FOR XML PATH(''), TYPE).value('.', 'nvarchar(max)'), 1, 1, ''))
UNION
SELECT
(SELECT
STUFF((SELECT (' ' + char_data_mv.char_value + '<br>')
FROM char_data_mv
WHERE (char_data_mv.object_id = 62 AND char_data_mv.char_id = 177)
ORDER BY char_data_mv.row_id
FOR XML PATH(''), TYPE ).value('.','nvarchar(max)'), 1, 1, '')) as [Impl]
Example data:
Row1 - 00001<br> 00005<br>
Row2 - PMB 12345<br>
Combined results would be:
00001<br> 00005<br> PMB 12345<br>

Answer 1

The UNION statement returns all of the rows from the first table, and then all of the rows from the second table together in one big table - so this is why you are getting 2 rows.
Instead, you can just add 2 strings together with the '+' operator. You also want to return a string if the other is null, and adding nulls begets nulls. So use the ISNULL function to give an empty string instead.
SELECT
ISNULL((SELECT STUFF
((SELECT
(' ' + mod_orders.mod_no + '<br>')
FROM mod_serials
INNER JOIN mod_orders ON mod_serials.mod_id = mod_orders.mod_id
INNER JOIN mod_order_items ON mod_orders.mod_id = mod_order_items.mod_id AND mod_order_items.item_id = 170
WHERE (mod_serials.serial_id = 62 AND mod_serials.date_implemented IS NOT NULL)
ORDER BY mod_serials.serial_id FOR XML PATH(''), TYPE ).value('.', 'nvarchar(max)'), 1, 1, '')),'')
+
ISNULL((SELECT STUFF
((SELECT
(' ' + char_data_mv.char_value + '<br>')
FROM char_data_mv
WHERE (char_data_mv.object_id = 62 AND char_data_mv.char_id = 177)
ORDER BY char_data_mv.row_id FOR XML PATH(''), TYPE ).value('.','nvarchar(max)'), 1, 1, '')),'') as [Impl]
Note that you need to remove bothe the UNION and also the first SELECT after it - which is creating the second table.