SQL multiplying rows in select - sql

Question

I would like to select some rows multiple-times, depending on the column's value.
Source table
Article | Count
===============
A | 1
B | 4
C | 2
Wanted result
Article
===============
A
B
B
B
B
C
C
Any hints or samples, please?

Answer 1

You could use:
SELECT m.Article
FROM mytable m
CROSS APPLY (VALUES (1),(2),(3),(4),(5),(6),(7),(8),(9),(10)) AS s(n)
WHERE s.n <= m.[Count];
LiveDemo
Note: CROSS APLLY with any tally table. Here values up to 10.
Related: What is the best way to create and populate a numbers table?

Answer 2

You could also use a recursive CTE which works with numbers > 10 (here up to 1000):
With NumberSequence( Number ) as
(
Select 0 as Number
union all
Select Number + 1
from NumberSequence
where Number BETWEEN 0 AND 1000
)
SELECT Article
FROM ArticleCounts
CROSS APPLY NumberSequence
WHERE Number BETWEEN 1 AND [Count]
ORDER BY Article
Option (MaxRecursion 0)
Demo
A number-table will certainly be the best option.
http://sqlperformance.com/2013/01/t-sql-queries/generate-a-set-2

Answer 3

Please check following SQL script
Before executing the SELECT statement, note that I used a user function which is used to simulate a numbers table
You can find the sql codes of numbers table in SQL Server at referred tutorial
----create table myTempTbl (Article varchar(10), Count int)
--insert into myTempTbl select 'A',1
--insert into myTempTbl select 'B',4
--insert into myTempTbl select 'C',2
select t.*
from myTempTbl t
cross apply dbo.NumbersTable(1,100,1) n
where n.i <= t.Count
order by t.Article

Answer 4

one more CTE
with cte_t as (
select c as c, 1 as i
from mytable
group by c
union all
select t.c, ctet.i + 1
from mytable t
join cte_t ctet
on ctet.c = t.c
and ctet.i < t.i
)
select cte_t.c
from cte_t
order by cte_t.c

Answer 5

Can obtain the output using simple WHILE LOOP
DECLARE #table TABLE
(ID int ,Article varchar(5),[Count] int)
INSERT INTO #table
(ID,Article,Count)
VALUES
(1,'A',1),(2,'B',4),(3,'C',2)
DECLARE #temp TABLE
(Article varchar(5))
DECLARE #Cnt1 INT
DECLARE #Cnt2 INT
DECLARE #Check INT
DECLARE #max INT
SET #max =0
SET #Cnt1 = (SELECT Count(Article) FROM #table)
WHILE (#max < #Cnt1)
BEGIN
SET #max = #max +1
SET #Cnt2 = (SELECT [Count] FROM #table WHERE ID =#max)
SET #Check =(SELECT [Count] FROM #table WHERE ID =#max)
WHILE (#Cnt2 > 0)
BEGIN
INSERT INTO #temp
SELECT Article FROM #table WHERE [Count] =#Check
SET #Cnt2 = #Cnt2 -1
END
END
SELECT * FROM #temp