I have 2 tables:
Table1 has a list of XML tag names that I want to extract from an XML field. I simulate this by running this query
SELECT
'CLIENT'
UNION SELECT
'FEE'
UNION SELECT
'ADDRESS'
This results in a single column with 3 rows in it, the names of which will be used to extract corresponding data from XML tags.
The second table has a column called ClientData, it is in XML format and it has thousands of rows of data. My task is to extract values from XML tags specified in Table1, in this case I want values from 3 xml tags: Client, FEE and ADDRESS.
So, if the XML is this
<XML>
<CLIENT>some client</CLIENT>
<FEE>some fee</FEE>
<ADDRESS>some address</ADDRESS>
</XML>
After running a query I should get this:
Client, FEE, ADDRESS
some client, some fee, some address
Right now i have a query:
SELECT
coalesce(Cast(ClientData as xml).value('(/XML/CLIENT)[1]', 'varchar(max)'), ''),
coalesce(Cast(ClientData as xml).value('(/XML/FEE)[1]', 'varchar(max)'), ''),
coalesce(Cast(ClientData as xml).value('(/XML/ADDRESS)[1]', 'varchar(max)'), '')
FROM dbo.Table2 WITH(NOLOCK)
This gives me the necessary result, however it is not dynamic. Meaning, if I want to include a 4th xml value, lets say, PHONE, I would need to add coalesce(Cast(ClientData as xml).value('(/XML/PHONE)[1]', 'varchar(max)'), '') to the SELECT
My question is,
How do I make my query dynamic so that instead of hardcoding tag names that I want to extract from XML in Table2 I would use Tabl1 as a source of tag names to extract?
I hope my explanation was good enough :)
Thank you!
You can achieve this using DYNAMIC SQL
The TagsTable should have all the possible Tags
we can then construct SQL using the tag names and execute it
create table TagsTable
( tagName varchar(256)
)
insert into TagsTable values ('CLIENT')
insert into TagsTable values ('FEE')
insert into TagsTable values ('ADDRESS')
declare #query nvarchar(max)
SELECT #query = STUFF((select ',' + 'coalesce(Cast(ClientData as xml).value(''(/XML/'
+ tagName + ')[1]'', ''varchar(max)''), '''') as ' + tagName +' '
FROM TagsTable
FOR XML PATH ('') ), 1,1,'')
SET #query = 'SELECT ' + #query + 'FROM dbo.Table2 WITH(NOLOCK)'
select #query
exec sp_executesql #query
Related
As the title states, I need help in converting a single row of data E.g,
col1 col2 col3 <-- This are column names
value1 value2 value3
To something like
dataResult <-- this is the column name from running the procedure or call
value1,value2,value3
The requirements are that this call ( or rather procedure) needs to be able to accept the results of sql queries of any column length and is able to convert that row to a comma delimited string format. Been stuck at this for weeks any help would be greatly appreciated...
EDIT*
Assume the unique key is the first column. Also assume that only 1 row will be returned with each query. Multiple rows will never occur.
The idea is to convert that row to a comma separated string without having to select the column names manually (in a sense automatically convert the query results)
You might try it like this:
A declared table variable to mock-up as test table. Be aware of the NULL value in col2!
DECLARE #tbl TABLE(col1 VARCHAR(100),col2 VARCHAR(100),col3 VARCHAR(100));
INSERT INTO #tbl VALUES('test1',NULL,'test3');
--This is the query:
SELECT
STUFF(
(
SELECT ',' + elmt.value('.','nvarchar(max)')
FROM
(
SELECT
(
/*YOUR QUERY HERE*/
SELECT TOP 1 *
FROM #tbl
/*--------------------*/
FOR XML AUTO ,ELEMENTS XSINIL,TYPE
)
) AS A(t)
CROSS APPLY t.nodes('/*/*') AS B(elmt)
FOR XML PATH('')
),1,1,'')
FOR XML AUTO will return each row as XML with all the values within attributes. But this would omit NULL values. Your returned string would not inlcude the full count of values in this case. Stating ELEMENT XSINIL forces the engine to include NULL values into the XML. This CROSS APPLY t.nodes('/*/*') will return all the elements as derived table and the rest is re-conactenation.
See the double comma in the middle! This is the NULL value of col2
test1,,test3
ATTENTION: You must be aware, that the whole approach will break, if there is a comma part of a (string) column...
Hint
Better was a solution with XML or JSON. Comma separated values are outdated...
Applay the next Approach:-
Use For Xml to sperate comma,
Get Columns Names Via using INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLUMNS.
According to your need, select TOP (1) for getting First
Row.
Demo:-
Create database MyTestDB
go
Use MyTestDB
go
Create table Table1 ( col1 varchar(10), col2 varchar(10),col3 varchar(10))
go
insert into Table1 values ('Value1','Value2','Value3')
insert into Table1 values ('Value11','Value12','Value13')
insert into Table1 values ('Value21','Value22','Value23')
go
Declare #Values nVarchar(400),
#TableName nvarchar (100),
#Query nvarchar(max)
Set #TableName = 'Table1'
Select #Values = Stuff(
(
Select '+'','' + ' + C.COLUMN_NAME
From INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLUMNS As C
Where C.TABLE_SCHEMA = T.TABLE_SCHEMA
And C.TABLE_NAME = T.TABLE_NAME
Order By C.ORDINAL_POSITION
For Xml Path('')
), 1, 2, '')
From INFORMATION_SCHEMA.TABLES As T
where TABLE_NAME = #TableName
select #Values = right(#Values,len(#Values)-4)
select #Query = 'select top(1)' + #Values + ' from ' + #TableName
exec sp_executeSQL #Query
Result:-
Before this question is marked as duplicate, i know how it can be done but without doing a declare statement i want to do it within a query itself
like i have this query
select distinct costcenterid,costcentername,costcenterdesc,contactid,expirationdate,portal_id,
active,customername,branchid,id from costcenter cc
inner join branchesinportals bp on bp.portalid = cc.portal_id
the branchid and the id fields have different values but all other rows have same values so if i remove those and do a distinct it works good, i get one record
i want that it should always return me one record and combine the columns branchid and id as a comma separated values
i tried looking a this link which seems to be working but how can i integrate that link code with query
http://www.codeproject.com/Tips/635166/SQL-Column-Values-as-Comma-Separated-String
You can use FOR XML to solve this problem. Here is a list of column names (you can run it in any SQL Server Database):
Select Stuff((
Select ', ' + cast(COLUMN_NAME as varchar(max))
From INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLUMNS
For XML PATH('')
), 1, 2, '');
Here is how to have a one-to-many value set show up:
Select Distinct C1.TABLE_NAME,
Stuff((
Select ', ' + Cast(COLUMN_NAME as VarChar (Max))
From INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLUMNS C2
Where C1.TABLE_NAME = C2.TABLE_NAME
For Xml Path ('')
), 1, 2, '') Columns
From INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLUMNS C1
Here is the output from my master database tables and columns:
I am concatenating several rows/strings in an table (on Microsoft SQL Server 2010) into a string by using a method as suggested here:
SELECT ',' + col FROM t1 FOR XML PATH('')
However, if I try to insert the resulting string as (single) row into another table like so:
INSERT INTO t2
SELECT ', ' + col FROM t1 FOR XML PATH('')
I receive this error message:
The FOR XML clause is not allowed in a INSERT statement.
t2 currently has a single column of type NVARCHAR(80). How can I overcome this problem, i.e. how can I collapse a table t1 with many rows into a table t2 with row that concatenates all the strings from t1 (with commas)?
Rather than xml path why not do it like this?
DECLARE #Cols VARCHAR(8000)
SELECT #Cols = COALESCE(#Cols + ', ', '') +
ISNULL(col, 'N/A')
FROM t1
Insert into t2 values(#Cols);
You need to cast it back to an nvarchar() before inserting. I use this method, deletes the first separator as well and as I'm doing the , type part, it handles entities correctly.
insert into t2
select stuff((
select ', ' + col from t1
for xml path(''), type
).value('.', 'nvarchar(80)'), 1, 2, '')
So you concatenate all col with prepending comma+space as an xml-object. Then you take the .value() of child with xquery-path . which means "take the child we are at, don't traverse anywhere". You cast it as an nvarchar(80) and replace a substring starting at position 1 and length 2 with an empty string ''. So the 2 should be replaced with however long your separator is.
I have a table variable in a stored procedure. What I want is to find all of the unique values in one column and join them in a comma-separated list. I am already in a stored procedure, so I can do it some way that way; however, I am curious if I can do this with a query. I am on SQL Server 2008. This query gets me the values I want:
SELECT DISTINCT faultType FROM #simFaults;
Is there a way (using CONCAT or something like that) where I can get the list as a single comma-separated value?
This worked for me on a test dataset.
DECLARE #MyCSV Varchar(200) = ''
SELECT #MyCSV = #MyCSV +
CAST(faulttype AS Varchar) + ','
FROM #Simfaults
GROUP BY faultType
SET #MyCSV = LEFT(#MyCSV, LEN(#MyCSV) - 1)
SELECT #MyCSV
The last part is needed to trim the trailing comma.
+1 to JNK - the other common way you will see, which doesn't require a variable is:
SELECT DISTINCT faulttype + ','
FROM #simfaults
FOR XML PATH ('')
Note that if faulttype contains characters like "<" for example, those will be xml encoded. But for simple values this will be OK.
this is how we do this
create table #test (item int)
insert into #test
values(1),(2),(3)
select STUFF((SELECT ', ' + cast(Item as nvarchar)
FROM #test
FOR XML PATH('')), 1, 2, '')
Without the space after the comma it would be;
select STUFF((SELECT ',' + cast(Item as nvarchar)
FROM #test
FOR XML PATH('')), 1,1, '')
I am using FOR XML in a query to join multiple rows together, but the text contains quotes, "<", ">", etc. I need the actual character instead of the encoded value like """ etc. Any suggestions?
Basically what you're asking for is invalid XML and luckly SQL Server will not produce it. You can take the generated XML and extract the content, and this operation will revert the escaped characters to their text representation. This revert normally occurs in the presnetaitonlayer, but it can occur in SQL Server itslef by instance using XML methods to extract the content of the produced FOR XML output. For example:
declare #text varchar(max) = 'this text has < and >';
declare #xml xml;
set #xml = (select #text as [node] for xml path('nodes'), type);
select #xml;
select x.value(N'.', N'varchar(max)') as [text]
from #xml.nodes('//nodes/node') t(x);
I have a similar requirement to extract column names for use in PIVOT query.
The solution I used was as follows:
SELECT #columns = STUFF((SELECT '],[' + Value
FROM Table
ORDER BY Value
FOR XML PATH('')), 1, 2, '') + ']'
This produces a single string:
[Value 1],[Value 2],[Value 3]
I hope this points you in the right direction.
--something like this?
SELECT * INTO #Names FROM (
SELECT Name='<>&' UNION ALL
SELECT Name='ab<>'
) Names;
-- 1)
SELECT STUFF(
(SELECT ', ' + Name FROM #Names FOR XML PATH(''))
,1,2,'');
-- 2)
SELECT STUFF(
(SELECT ', ' + Name FROM #Names FOR XML PATH(''),TYPE).value('text()[1]','nvarchar(max)')
,1,2,'');
-- 2) is slower but will not return encoded value.
Hope it help.