SQL Combing the top 2 field values into 1 value - sql

Question

I have a very simple query that returns the Notes field. Since there can be multiple notes, I only want the top 2. No problem. However, I'm going to be using the sql within another query. I really don't want 2 lines in my results. I would like to combine the results into 1 field value so I only have 1 result line in the results. Is this possible?
For example, I currently get the following:
12345 1001 500.00 "Note 1"
12345 1001 500.00 "Note 2"
What I would like to see is this:
12345 1001 500.00 "Note 1 AND Note 2"
Following is the sql:
select top 2 rcai.field_value
from rnt_agrs ra
inner join rnt_agr_inv_notes rain on ra.rnt_agr_nbr=rain.rea_rnt_agr_nbr
inner join RNT_CUST_ADDNL_INFO rcai on rain.rea_rnt_agr_nbr=rcai.rea_rnt_agr_nbr and rain.bac_acc_id=rcai.bac_acct_id
where ra.rnt_agr_nbr=128260511
Thanks for your help. I appreciate this forum for help with these issues.....

Answer 1

Get the next row's value and filter all but the first row:
select ..., rcai.field_value || ' AND '
min(rcai.field_value) -- next row's value (same as LEAD in Standard SQL)
over (partition by ra.rnt_agr_nbr
order by rcai.field_value
rows between 1 following and 1 following) as next_field_value
from rnt_agrs ra
inner join rnt_agr_inv_notes rain on ra.rnt_agr_nbr=rain.rea_rnt_agr_nbr
inner join RNT_CUST_ADDNL_INFO rcai on rain.rea_rnt_agr_nbr=rcai.rea_rnt_agr_nbr and rain.bac_acc_id=rcai.bac_acct_id
where ra.rnt_agr_nbr=128260511
qualify
row_number() -- only the first row
over (partition by ra.rnt_agr_nbr
order by rcai.field_value) = 1
If there might be only a single row you need to add a COALESCE(min...,'') to get rid of the NULL.
Both OLAP functions specify the same PARTITION and ORDER, so this is a single working step.

Answer 2

select *,(SELECT top 2 rcai.field_value + ' AND ' AS [text()]
FROM RNT_CUST_ADDNL_INFO rcai
WHERE rcai.rea_rnt_agr_nbr = rain.rea_rnt_agr_nbr
AND rcai.bac_acct_id=rain.bac_acc_id
FOR XML PATH('')) AS Notes
from
rnt_agrs ra inner join rnt_agr_inv_notes rain
on ra.rnt_agr_nbr=rain.rea_rnt_agr_nbr
I had something like this, where there was a 1 to many, and I wanted a semicolon delimited set of values in a single column with the main record.

Answer 3

You could use PIVOT to transform the two note rows into two note columns based on row number, then concatenate them. Here's an example:
SELECT pvt.[1] + ' and ' + pvt.[2]
FROM
( --the selection of your table data, including a row-number column
SELECT Msg, ROW_NUMBER() OVER(ORDER BY Id)
--sample data shown here, but this would be your real table
FROM (VALUES(1, 'Note 1'), (2, 'Note 2'), (3, 'Note 3')) Note(Id, Msg)
) Data (Msg, Row)
PIVOT (MAX(Msg) FOR Row IN ([1], [2])) pvt
Note that MAX is used for the aggregate in the PIVOT since an aggregate is required, but since ROW_NUMBER is unique, you're only aggregating a single value.
This could also be easily extended to the first N rows - just include the row numbers you want in the pivot and combine them as desired in the select statement.