How to pass an array into a SQL Server stored procedure?
For example, I have a list of employees. I want to use this list as a table and join it with another table. But the list of employees should be passed as parameter from C#.
SQL Server 2016 (or newer)
You can pass in a delimited list or JSON and use STRING_SPLIT() or OPENJSON().
STRING_SPLIT():
CREATE PROCEDURE dbo.DoSomethingWithEmployees
#List varchar(max)
AS
BEGIN
SET NOCOUNT ON;
SELECT value FROM STRING_SPLIT(#List, ',');
END
GO
EXEC dbo.DoSomethingWithEmployees #List = '1,2,3';
OPENJSON():
CREATE PROCEDURE dbo.DoSomethingWithEmployees
#List varchar(max)
AS
BEGIN
SET NOCOUNT ON;
SELECT value FROM OPENJSON(CONCAT('["',
REPLACE(STRING_ESCAPE(#List, 'JSON'),
',', '","'), '"]')) AS j;
END
GO
EXEC dbo.DoSomethingWithEmployees #List = '1,2,3';
I wrote more about this here:
Handling an unknown number of parameters in SQL Server
Ordered String Splitting in SQL Server with OPENJSON
SQL Server 2008 (or newer)
First, in your database, create the following two objects:
CREATE TYPE dbo.IDList
AS TABLE
(
ID INT
);
GO
CREATE PROCEDURE dbo.DoSomethingWithEmployees
#List AS dbo.IDList READONLY
AS
BEGIN
SET NOCOUNT ON;
SELECT ID FROM #List;
END
GO
Now in your C# code:
// Obtain your list of ids to send, this is just an example call to a helper utility function
int[] employeeIds = GetEmployeeIds();
DataTable tvp = new DataTable();
tvp.Columns.Add(new DataColumn("ID", typeof(int)));
// populate DataTable from your List here
foreach(var id in employeeIds)
tvp.Rows.Add(id);
using (conn)
{
SqlCommand cmd = new SqlCommand("dbo.DoSomethingWithEmployees", conn);
cmd.CommandType = CommandType.StoredProcedure;
SqlParameter tvparam = cmd.Parameters.AddWithValue("#List", tvp);
// these next lines are important to map the C# DataTable object to the correct SQL User Defined Type
tvparam.SqlDbType = SqlDbType.Structured;
tvparam.TypeName = "dbo.IDList";
// execute query, consume results, etc. here
}
SQL Server 2005
If you are using SQL Server 2005, I would still recommend a split function over XML. First, create a function:
CREATE FUNCTION dbo.SplitInts
(
#List VARCHAR(MAX),
#Delimiter VARCHAR(255)
)
RETURNS TABLE
AS
RETURN ( SELECT Item = CONVERT(INT, Item) FROM
( SELECT Item = x.i.value('(./text())[1]', 'varchar(max)')
FROM ( SELECT [XML] = CONVERT(XML, '<i>'
+ REPLACE(#List, #Delimiter, '</i><i>') + '</i>').query('.')
) AS a CROSS APPLY [XML].nodes('i') AS x(i) ) AS y
WHERE Item IS NOT NULL
);
GO
Now your stored procedure can just be:
CREATE PROCEDURE dbo.DoSomethingWithEmployees
#List VARCHAR(MAX)
AS
BEGIN
SET NOCOUNT ON;
SELECT EmployeeID = Item FROM dbo.SplitInts(#List, ',');
END
GO
And in your C# code you just have to pass the list as '1,2,3,12'...
I find the method of passing through table valued parameters simplifies the maintainability of a solution that uses it and often has increased performance compared to other implementations including XML and string splitting.
The inputs are clearly defined (no one has to guess if the delimiter is a comma or a semi-colon) and we do not have dependencies on other processing functions that are not obvious without inspecting the code for the stored procedure.
Compared to solutions involving user defined XML schema instead of UDTs, this involves a similar number of steps but in my experience is far simpler code to manage, maintain and read.
In many solutions you may only need one or a few of these UDTs (User defined Types) that you re-use for many stored procedures. As with this example, the common requirement is to pass through a list of ID pointers, the function name describes what context those Ids should represent, the type name should be generic.
Based on my experience, by creating a delimited expression from the employeeIDs, there is a tricky and nice solution for this problem. You should only create an string expression like ';123;434;365;' in-which 123, 434 and 365 are some employeeIDs. By calling the below procedure and passing this expression to it, you can fetch your desired records. Easily you can join the "another table" into this query. This solution is suitable in all versions of SQL server. Also, in comparison with using table variable or temp table, it is very faster and optimized solution.
CREATE PROCEDURE dbo.DoSomethingOnSomeEmployees #List AS varchar(max)
AS
BEGIN
SELECT EmployeeID
FROM EmployeesTable
-- inner join AnotherTable on ...
where #List like '%;'+cast(employeeID as varchar(20))+';%'
END
GO
Use a table-valued parameter for your stored procedure.
When you pass it in from C# you'll add the parameter with the data type of SqlDb.Structured.
See here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb675163.aspx
Example:
// Assumes connection is an open SqlConnection object.
using (connection)
{
// Create a DataTable with the modified rows.
DataTable addedCategories =
CategoriesDataTable.GetChanges(DataRowState.Added);
// Configure the SqlCommand and SqlParameter.
SqlCommand insertCommand = new SqlCommand(
"usp_InsertCategories", connection);
insertCommand.CommandType = CommandType.StoredProcedure;
SqlParameter tvpParam = insertCommand.Parameters.AddWithValue(
"#tvpNewCategories", addedCategories);
tvpParam.SqlDbType = SqlDbType.Structured;
// Execute the command.
insertCommand.ExecuteNonQuery();
}
You need to pass it as an XML parameter.
Edit: quick code from my project to give you an idea:
CREATE PROCEDURE [dbo].[GetArrivalsReport]
#DateTimeFrom AS DATETIME,
#DateTimeTo AS DATETIME,
#HostIds AS XML(xsdArrayOfULong)
AS
BEGIN
DECLARE #hosts TABLE (HostId BIGINT)
INSERT INTO #hosts
SELECT arrayOfUlong.HostId.value('.','bigint') data
FROM #HostIds.nodes('/arrayOfUlong/u') as arrayOfUlong(HostId)
Then you can use the temp table to join with your tables.
We defined arrayOfUlong as a built in XML schema to maintain data integrity, but you don't have to do that. I'd recommend using it so here's a quick code for to make sure you always get an XML with longs.
IF NOT EXISTS (SELECT * FROM sys.xml_schema_collections WHERE name = 'xsdArrayOfULong')
BEGIN
CREATE XML SCHEMA COLLECTION [dbo].[xsdArrayOfULong]
AS N'<xs:schema xmlns:xs="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">
<xs:element name="arrayOfUlong">
<xs:complexType>
<xs:sequence>
<xs:element maxOccurs="unbounded"
name="u"
type="xs:unsignedLong" />
</xs:sequence>
</xs:complexType>
</xs:element>
</xs:schema>';
END
GO
Context is always important, such as the size and complexity of the array. For small to mid-size lists, several of the answers posted here are just fine, though some clarifications should be made:
For splitting a delimited list, a SQLCLR-based splitter is the fastest. There are numerous examples around if you want to write your own, or you can just download the free SQL# library of CLR functions (which I wrote, but the String_Split function, and many others, are completely free).
Splitting XML-based arrays can be fast, but you need to use attribute-based XML, not element-based XML (which is the only type shown in the answers here, though #AaronBertrand's XML example is the best as his code is using the text() XML function. For more info (i.e. performance analysis) on using XML to split lists, check out "Using XML to pass lists as parameters in SQL Server" by Phil Factor.
Using TVPs is great (assuming you are using at least SQL Server 2008, or newer) as the data is streamed to the proc and shows up pre-parsed and strongly-typed as a table variable. HOWEVER, in most cases, storing all of the data in DataTable means duplicating the data in memory as it is copied from the original collection. Hence using the DataTable method of passing in TVPs does not work well for larger sets of data (i.e. does not scale well).
XML, unlike simple delimited lists of Ints or Strings, can handle more than one-dimensional arrays, just like TVPs. But also just like the DataTable TVP method, XML does not scale well as it more than doubles the datasize in memory as it needs to additionally account for the overhead of the XML document.
With all of that said, IF the data you are using is large or is not very large yet but consistently growing, then the IEnumerable TVP method is the best choice as it streams the data to SQL Server (like the DataTable method), BUT doesn't require any duplication of the collection in memory (unlike any of the other methods). I posted an example of the SQL and C# code in this answer:
Pass Dictionary to Stored Procedure T-SQL
As others have noted above, one way to do this is to convert your array to a string and then split the string inside SQL Server.
As of SQL Server 2016, there's a built-in way to split strings called
STRING_SPLIT()
It returns a set of rows that you can insert into your temp table (or real table).
DECLARE #str varchar(200)
SET #str = "123;456;789;246;22;33;44;55;66"
SELECT value FROM STRING_SPLIT(#str, ';')
would yield:
value
-----
123
456
789
246
22
33
44
55
66
If you want to get fancier:
DECLARE #tt TABLE (
thenumber int
)
DECLARE #str varchar(200)
SET #str = "123;456;789;246;22;33;44;55;66"
INSERT INTO #tt
SELECT value FROM STRING_SPLIT(#str, ';')
SELECT * FROM #tt
ORDER BY thenumber
would give you the same results as above (except the column name is "thenumber"), but sorted. You can use the table variable like any other table, so you can easily join it with other tables in the DB if you want.
Note that your SQL Server install has to be at compatibility level 130 or higher in order for the STRING_SPLIT() function to be recognized. You can check your compatibility level with the following query:
SELECT compatibility_level
FROM sys.databases WHERE name = 'yourdatabasename';
Most languages (including C#) have a "join" function you can use to create a string from an array.
int[] myarray = {22, 33, 44};
string sqlparam = string.Join(";", myarray);
Then you pass sqlparam as your parameter to the stored procedure above.
This will help you. :) Follow the next steps,
Open the Query Editor
Copy Paste the following code as it is, it will create the Function which converts the String to Int
CREATE FUNCTION dbo.SplitInts
(
#List VARCHAR(MAX),
#Delimiter VARCHAR(255)
)
RETURNS TABLE
AS
RETURN ( SELECT Item = CONVERT(INT, Item) FROM
( SELECT Item = x.i.value('(./text())[1]', 'varchar(max)')
FROM ( SELECT [XML] = CONVERT(XML, '<i>'
+ REPLACE(#List, #Delimiter, '</i><i>') + '</i>').query('.')
) AS a CROSS APPLY [XML].nodes('i') AS x(i) ) AS y
WHERE Item IS NOT NULL
);
GO
Create the Following stored procedure
CREATE PROCEDURE dbo.sp_DeleteMultipleId
#List VARCHAR(MAX)
AS
BEGIN
SET NOCOUNT ON;
DELETE FROM TableName WHERE Id IN( SELECT Id = Item FROM dbo.SplitInts(#List, ','));
END
GO
Execute this SP Using exec sp_DeleteId '1,2,3,12' this is a string of Id's which you want to delete,
You can convert your array to string in C# and pass it as a Stored Procedure parameter as below,
int[] intarray = { 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 };
string[] result = intarray.Select(x=>x.ToString()).ToArray();
SqlCommand command = new SqlCommand();
command.Connection = connection;
command.CommandText = "sp_DeleteMultipleId";
command.CommandType = CommandType.StoredProcedure;
command.Parameters.Add("#Id",SqlDbType.VARCHAR).Value=result ;
This will delete multiple rows in a single stored proc call. All the best.
There is no support for array in sql server but there are several ways by which you can pass collection to a stored proc .
By using datatable
By using XML.Try converting your collection in an xml format and then pass it as an input to a stored procedure
The below link may help you
passing collection to a stored procedure
Starting in SQL Server 2016 you can bring the list in as an NVARCHAR() and use OPENJSON
DECLARE #EmployeeList nvarchar(500) = '[1,2,15]'
SELECT *
FROM Employees
WHERE ID IN (SELECT VALUE FROM OPENJSON(#EmployeeList ))
I've been searching through all the examples and answers of how to pass any array to sql server without the hassle of creating new Table type,till i found this linK, below is how I applied it to my project:
--The following code is going to get an Array as Parameter and insert the values of that
--array into another table
Create Procedure Proc1
#UserId int, //just an Id param
#s nvarchar(max) //this is the array your going to pass from C# code to your Sproc
AS
declare #xml xml
set #xml = N'<root><r>' + replace(#s,',','</r><r>') + '</r></root>'
Insert into UserRole (UserID,RoleID)
select
#UserId [UserId], t.value('.','varchar(max)') as [RoleId]
from #xml.nodes('//root/r') as a(t)
END
Hope you enjoy it
Starting in SQL Server 2016 you can simply use split string
Example:
WHERE (#LocationId IS NULL OR Id IN (SELECT items from Split_String(#LocationId, ',')))
CREATE TYPE dumyTable
AS TABLE
(
RateCodeId int,
RateLowerRange int,
RateHigherRange int,
RateRangeValue int
);
GO
CREATE PROCEDURE spInsertRateRanges
#dt AS dumyTable READONLY
AS
BEGIN
SET NOCOUNT ON;
INSERT tblRateCodeRange(RateCodeId,RateLowerRange,RateHigherRange,RateRangeValue)
SELECT *
FROM #dt
END
It took me a long time to figure this out, so in case anyone needs it...
This is based on the SQL 2005 method in Aaron's answer, and using his SplitInts function (I just removed the delim param since I'll always use commas). I'm using SQL 2008 but I wanted something that works with typed datasets (XSD, TableAdapters) and I know string params work with those.
I was trying to get his function to work in a "where in (1,2,3)" type clause, and having no luck the straight-forward way. So I created a temp table first, and then did an inner join instead of the "where in". Here is my example usage, in my case I wanted to get a list of recipes that don't contain certain ingredients:
CREATE PROCEDURE dbo.SOExample1
(
#excludeIngredientsString varchar(MAX) = ''
)
AS
/* Convert string to table of ints */
DECLARE #excludeIngredients TABLE (ID int)
insert into #excludeIngredients
select ID = Item from dbo.SplitInts(#excludeIngredientsString)
/* Select recipies that don't contain any ingredients in our excluded table */
SELECT r.Name, r.Slug
FROM Recipes AS r LEFT OUTER JOIN
RecipeIngredients as ri inner join
#excludeIngredients as ei on ri.IngredientID = ei.ID
ON r.ID = ri.RecipeID
WHERE (ri.RecipeID IS NULL)
Note: This is in SQL Server 2008.
I'm trying to use the APPLY operator to allow me to call user-defined in-line table-valued functions on each other in a sensible manner, but it doesn't seem to faithfully do so. I'm using OUTER APPLY, but CROSS APPLY does the same thing. Here's the relevant chunk:
SELECT addresses.Book,addresses.Page,foo.BookInput,foo.PageInput
FROM [dbo].bookPageFromAddress(#address) addresses
outer apply [dbo].[imageFileFromBookPage](addresses.Book, addresses.Page) foo
Nothing is bizarre:
GO
CREATE FUNCTION [dbo].imageFileFromBookPage (#book nvarchar(max), #page nvarchar(max))
RETURNS TABLE AS RETURN(
WITH ids AS (
SELECT right('00000000'+ltrim(str(c.DocID)),8) as VarString,
right('0000000000'+ltrim(str(i.ImageID)),12) as PathVar6
FROM [Resolution].[dbo].[Constant] c, [Resolution].[dbo].[Images] i
WHERE ltrim(c.[Book]) like #book
AND ltrim(c.[Page]) like #page
AND i.DocID = c.DocID
)
SELECT '/Images/' +
substring(ids.VarString,1,2)+'/' +
substring(ids.VarString,3,2)+'/' +
substring(ids.VarString,5,2)+'/' +
right(ids.VarString,8)+'/' +
PathVar6 + '.tif' as ImageLocation
,#book as BookInput, #page as PageInput
FROM ids
);
So, in essence,imageFileFromBookPage outputs its input to BookInput and PageInput. Here's the result of that outer apply on sample input:
Book 4043
Page 125
BookInput NULL
PageInput NULL
Note that Book and Page are strings, not integers; they just happen to be holding numeric characters here, but BookInput and PageInput are really NULL, not strings. I thought at first it was a typing issue; both Book and Page are nchar(10) in their original table, and both of my functions expect nvarchar(max) inputs. I tried CASTing the arguments as nvarchar(max) and got identical results, however.
Am I barking up the wrong tree? I'm not familiar with APPLY, but it sure seems like what I want, here. How do I get APPLY or something like it to actually pass along values to the next function?
EDIT: Modified code above to include more information.
Looking at the APPLY docs, shouldn;t the function be declared as:
CREATE FUNCTION [dbo].imageFileFromBookPage (#book nvarchar(max), #page nvarchar(max))
returns #Data Table
(
book nvartchar(max),
page nvarchar(max)
)
as
begin
insert into #Data
select #book, #page;
end
In other words, it's not a problem with APPLY, it's a problem that your function needs to return a Table.
Cheers -
I'm writing a SQL script that we want our accounting team to be able to edit, without dealing with engineering.
The general idea is to have a .sql script, which defines some variables at the top of the query, and then has several complex queries below it that use those variables.
The problem we have is that we want the accounting team to be able to specify the filter to use. For example:
DECLARE #year INT
DECLARE #month INT
DECLARE #filter VARCHAR(30);
SET #year = 2010
SET #month = 7
SET #filter = '%test%'
Here the team can change the month and the year that the subsequent queries return. They can also define ONE filter element, in this example, excluding any records where the username has the string 'test' in it.
My question is whether or not there is a way to specify OR's to a LIKE(). Eg, ideally we'd have the #filter variable as something like '%test%, or %other%. Now I know that's not real syntax, but I'm wondering if there is syntax that lets me achieve that. I've scowered MSDN on the LIKE() syntax with no joy. Should I use some different query expression?
Probably the simplest thing to do would be to just have multiple parameters, though it's not pretty:
SET #filter_1 = '%test%'
SET #filter_2 = '%foo%'
SET #filter_3 = '%'
SET #filter_4 = '%'
SELECT *
FROM BAR
WHERE var LIKE #filter_1
OR var LIKE #filter_2
OR var LIKE #filter_3
OR var LIKE #filter_4
OR var LIKE #filter_5
By defaulting them to %, they will always match by default.
You could also use dynamic SQL and a local table variable. Basically, create a local table with one column, allow them to change the INSERT statements into that table, then define a loop that iterates over the contents of that table to dynamically generate the LIKE clauses. It would work, but it would be a bit more code. The example above is quick and dirty, but I'd guess it's probably sufficient for what you need to do.
I'd use a join with a LIKE predicate. You can execute the following code sample in a query window to see how this works:
DECLARE #tblFilter TABLE
(sFilter nvarchar(MAX) NOT NULL);
INSERT #tblFilter
SELECT * FROM (VALUES ('%one%'), ('%two%'), ('%three%')) v(s);
DECLARE #tblData TABLE
(iId int NOT NULL PRIMARY KEY IDENTITY,
sData nvarchar(MAX));
INSERT #tblData(sData)
SELECT * FROM (VALUES ('one'), ('two three'), ('four')) v(s);
SELECT DISTINCT iId
FROM #tblData d
JOIN #tblFilter f ON d.sData LIKE f.sFilter;
I assume that the different query strings are in the #tblFilter table, which could be a TVP, coming from XML values, from comma-separated values, from a temp table or whatever.
I made the following function in SQL Server 2008 earlier this week that takes two parameters and uses them to select a column of "detail" records and returns them as a single varchar list of comma separated values. Now that I get to thinking about it, I would like to take this table and application-specific function and make it more generic.
I am not well-versed in defining SQL functions, as this is my first. How can I change this function to accept a single "column" worth of data, so that I can use it in a more generic way?
Instead of calling:
SELECT ejc_concatFormDetails(formuid, categoryName)
I would like to make it work like:
SELECT concatColumnValues(SELECT someColumn FROM SomeTable)
Here is my function definition:
FUNCTION [DNet].[ejc_concatFormDetails](#formuid AS int, #category as VARCHAR(75))
RETURNS VARCHAR(1000) AS
BEGIN
DECLARE #returnData VARCHAR(1000)
DECLARE #currentData VARCHAR(75)
DECLARE dataCursor CURSOR FAST_FORWARD FOR
SELECT data FROM DNet.ejc_FormDetails WHERE formuid = #formuid AND category = #category
SET #returnData = ''
OPEN dataCursor
FETCH NEXT FROM dataCursor INTO #currentData
WHILE (##FETCH_STATUS = 0)
BEGIN
SET #returnData = #returnData + ', ' + #currentData
FETCH NEXT FROM dataCursor INTO #currentData
END
CLOSE dataCursor
DEALLOCATE dataCursor
RETURN SUBSTRING(#returnData,3,1000)
END
As you can see, I am selecting the column data within my function and then looping over the results with a cursor to build my comma separated varchar.
How can I alter this to accept a single parameter that is a result set and then access that result set with a cursor?
Others have answered your main question - but let me point out another problem with your function - the terrible use of a CURSOR!
You can easily rewrite this function to use no cursor, no WHILE loop - nothing like that. It'll be tons faster, and a lot easier, too - much less code:
FUNCTION DNet.ejc_concatFormDetails
(#formuid AS int, #category as VARCHAR(75))
RETURNS VARCHAR(1000)
AS
RETURN
SUBSTRING(
(SELECT ', ' + data
FROM DNet.ejc_FormDetails
WHERE formuid = #formuid AND category = #category
FOR XML PATH('')
), 3, 1000)
The trick is to use the FOR XML PATH('') - this returns a concatenated list of your data columns and your fixed ', ' delimiters. Add a SUBSTRING() on that and you're done! As easy as that..... no dogged-slow CURSOR, no messie concatenation and all that gooey code - just one statement and that's all there is.
You can use table-valued parameters:
CREATE FUNCTION MyFunction(
#Data AS TABLE (
Column1 int,
Column2 nvarchar(50),
Column3 datetime
)
)
RETURNS NVARCHAR(MAX)
AS BEGIN
/* here you can do what you want */
END
You can use Table Valued Parameters as of SQL Server 2008, which would allow you to pass a TABLE variable in as a parameter. The limitations and examples for this are all in that linked article.
However, I'd also point out that using a cursor could well be painful for performance.
You don't need to use a cursor, as you can do it all in 1 SELECT statement:
SELECT #MyCSVString = COALESCE(#MyCSVString + ', ', '') + data
FROM DNet.ejc_FormDetails
WHERE formuid = #formuid AND category = #category
No need for a cursor
Your question is a bit unclear. In your first SQL statement it looks like you're trying to pass columns to the function, but there is no WHERE clause. In the second SQL statement you're passing a collection of rows (results from a SELECT). Can you supply some sample data and expected outcome?
Without fully understanding your goal, you could look into changing the parameter to be a table variable. Fill a table variable local to the calling code and pass that into the function. You could do that as a stored procedure though and wouldn't need a function.
how can i write the store procedure for searching particular string in a column of table, for given set of strings (CSV string).
like : select * from xxx where tags like ('oscar','rahman','slumdog')
how can i write the procedure for that combination of tags.
To create a comma seperated string...
You could then apply this list to Oded example to create the LIKE parts of the WHERE cluase on the fly.
DECLARE #pos int, #curruntLocation char(20), #input varchar(2048)
SELECT #pos=0
SELECT #input = 'oscar,rahman,slumdog'
SELECT #input = #input + ','
CREATE TABLE #tempTable (temp varchar(100) )
WHILE CHARINDEX(',',#input) > 0
BEGIN
SELECT #pos=CHARINDEX(',',#input)
SELECT #curruntLocation = RTRIM(LTRIM(SUBSTRING(#input,1,#pos-1)))
INSERT INTO #tempTable (temp) VALUES (#curruntLocation)
SELECT #input=SUBSTRING(#input,#pos+1,2048)
END
SELECT * FROM #tempTable
DR0P TABLE #tempTable
First off, the use of like for exact matches is sub-optimal. Might as well use =, and if doing so, you can use the IN syntax:
select * from xxx
where tags IN ('oscar', 'rahman', 'slumdog')
I am guessing you are not looking for an exact match, but for any record where the tags field contains all of the tags.
This would be something like this:
select * from xxx
where tags like '%oscar%'
and tags like '%rahman%'
and tags like '%slumdog%'
This would be not be very fast or performant though.
Think about moving this kind of logic into your application, where it is faster and easier to do.
Edit:
Following the comments - there are lots of examples on how to parse delimited strings out there. You can put these in a table and use dynamic sql to generate your query.
But, this will have bad performance and SQL Server will not be able to cache query plans for this kind of thing. As I said above - think about moving this kind of logic to application level.