Yield Return equivalent in SQL Server - sql

Question

I am writing down a view in SQL server (DWH) and the use case pseudo code is:
-- Do some calculation and generate #Temp1
-- ... contains other selects
-- Select statement 1
SELECT * FROM Foo
JOIN #Temp1 tmp on tmp.ID = Foo.ID
WHERE Foo.Deleted = 1
-- Do some calculation and generate #Temp2
-- ... contains other selects
-- Select statement 2
SELECT * FROM Foo
JOIN #Temp2 tmp on tmp.ID = Foo.ID
WHERE Foo.Deleted = 1
The result of the view should be:
Select Statement 1
UNION
Select Statement 2
The intended behavior is the same as the yield returnin C#. Is there a way to tell the view which SELECT statements are actually part of the result and which are not? since the small calculations preceding what I need also contain selects.
Thank you!

Answer 1

Yield return in C# returns rows one at a time as they appear in some underlying function. This concept does not exist in SQL statements. SQl is set-based, returning the entire result set, conceptually as a unit. (That said, sometimes queries run slowly and you will see rows returned slowly or in batches.)
You can control the number of rows being returns using TOP (in SQL Server). You can select particular rows to be returned using WHERE statements. However, you cannot specify a UNION statement that conditionally returns rows from some components but not others.
The closest you may be able to come is something like:
if UseTable1Only = 'Y'
select *
from Table1
else if UseTable2Only = 'Y'
select *
from Table2
else
select *
from table1
union
select *
from table2
You can do something similar using dynamic SQL, by constructing the statement as a string and then executing it.

Answer 2

I found a better work around. It might be helpful for someone else. It is actually to include all the calculation inside WITH statements instead of doing them in the view core:
WITH Temp1 (ID)
AS
(
-- Do some calculation and generate #Temp1
-- ... contains other selects
)
, Temp2 (ID)
AS
(
-- Do some calculation and generate #Temp2
-- ... contains other selects
)
-- Select statement 1
SELECT * FROM Foo
JOIN Temp1 tmp on tmp.ID = Foo.ID
WHERE Foo.Deleted = 1
UNION
-- Select statement 2
SELECT * FROM Foo
JOIN Temp2 tmp on tmp.ID = Foo.ID
WHERE Foo.Deleted = 1
The result will be of course the UNION of all the outiside SELECT statements.