Iterating through a SQL Server 2008 R2 table variable and concatenate values - sql

Question

I have a table variable #Holding two columns: an id (not unique) and a message:
id message
---- -------
2 give
2 me
2 help
3 Need
3 help
1 help!
The result should be
2 give me help
3 Need help
1 help!
This it very much simplified, but shows that there are id which may exist more than once, and some kind of text which should be concatenated into a string.
I cannot manage it to loop through this table variable (but not through a table too!).
I tried a cursor (which I did not understand correctly) but it failed of course.
The number of records are not that much, not even 100 in that table variable.
Thanks yr. help
Michael

Answer 1

Original question
No CURSOR, WHILE loop, or User-Defined Function needed.
Just need to be creative with FOR XML and PATH.
[Note: This solution only works on SQL 2005 and later. Original question didn't specify the version in use.]
CREATE TABLE #YourTable ([ID] INT, [Name] CHAR(1), [Value] INT)
INSERT INTO #YourTable ([ID],[Name],[Value]) VALUES (1,'A',4)
INSERT INTO #YourTable ([ID],[Name],[Value]) VALUES (1,'B',8)
INSERT INTO #YourTable ([ID],[Name],[Value]) VALUES (2,'C',9)
SELECT
[ID],
STUFF((
SELECT ', ' + [Name] + ':' + CAST([Value] AS VARCHAR(MAX))
FROM #YourTable
WHERE (ID = Results.ID)
FOR XML PATH(''),TYPE).value('(./text())[1]','VARCHAR(MAX)')
,1,2,'') AS NameValues
FROM #YourTable Results
GROUP BY ID
DROP TABLE #YourTable

Answer 2

This should work if you are using SQL Server.
select T1.id,
stuff((select ' '+T2.[message]
from #A as T2
where T1.id = T2.id
for xml path(''), type).value('.', 'varchar(max)'), 1, 1, '') as [message]
from #A as T1
group by T1.id

Answer 3

Pretty the same, just less letters in the code:
DECLARE #t AS TABLE ( id INT, msg VARCHAR(100) );
INSERT INTO #t
VALUES ( 2, 'give' );
INSERT INTO #t
VALUES ( 2, 'me' );
INSERT INTO #t
VALUES ( 2, 'help' );
INSERT INTO #t
VALUES ( 3, 'Need' );
INSERT INTO #t
VALUES ( 3, 'help' );
INSERT INTO #t
VALUES ( 1, 'help!' );
SELECT DISTINCT
id ,
(
SELECT ST1.msg + ' '
FROM #t ST1
WHERE ST1.id = ST2.id
FOR XML PATH('')
) t
FROM
#t ST2;