Have all Records in one Field - sql

Question

how is possible to have all records of one field into one field
Id, No , FDevice
1 , 1 , 'A'
2 , 1 , 'B'
3 , 1 , 'C'
4 , 2 , 'D'
5 , 2 , 'E'
I want to have
No , FDevice
1 , A-B-C
2 , D-E
Thank you for your help

Answer 1

use STUFF() - which inserts a string into another string.
SELECT
[No],
STUFF(
(SELECT '-' + [FDevice]
FROM TableName
WHERE [No] = a.[No]
FOR XML PATH (''))
, 1, 1, '') AS FDevice
FROM TableName AS a
GROUP BY [No]
SQLFiddle Demo

Answer 2

There're a well-known solution for aggregate concatenation in SQL Server, using select ... for xml path(''), but I have to say that many people using it incorrectly. Correct way to do this would be
select
a.[No],
stuff(
(
select '-' + t.[FDevice]
from TableName as t
where t.[No] = a.[No]
for xml path(''), type
).value('.', 'nvarchar(max)')
, 1, 1, '') as FDevice
from (select distinct [No] from TableName) as a;
sql fiddle demo
The main part is to use xml type inside the query and then to convert it into varchar using value function, otherwise you can end up with incorrectly converted special chars like '>', '<', '&' and so on. SQLfiddle somehow doesn't show the difference, but here's a script which can show you what can happen if you don't use xml type:
declare #TableName table
([Id] int, [No] int, [FDevice] varchar(3))
;
INSERT INTO #TableName
([Id], [No], [FDevice])
VALUES
(1, 1, 'A<'),
(2, 1, 'B'),
(3, 1, '&C'),
(4, 2, 'D'),
(5, 2, 'E')
;
SELECT
[No],
STUFF(
(SELECT '-' + [FDevice]
FROM #TableName
WHERE [No] = a.[No]
FOR XML PATH (''))
, 1, 1, '') AS FDevice
FROM #TableName AS a
GROUP BY [No];
outputs
No FDevice
--------------------
1 A<-B-&C
2 D-E
select
a.[No],
stuff(
(
select '-' + t.[FDevice]
from #TableName as t
where t.[No] = a.[No]
for xml path(''), type
).value('.', 'nvarchar(max)')
, 1, 1, '') as FDevice
from (select distinct [No] from #TableName) as a;
outputs
No FDevice
--------------------
1 A<-B-&C
2 D-E