update table using variable from another query

  • Hi

    I want to update one table with the value from variable using a set based approach.

    so the line

    >> select @List = coalesce(@list + ',','') + cast(id as varchar(10)) + cast(feetype as varchar(25))

    works fine but I want to take @list and use it to update my customers table. here is the full code. I could really do with some help!

    create table customers

    (custid int, fee_history varchar(max))

    insert into customers

    (custid

    , fee_history

    )

    values (1,null)

    , (2,null)

    create table fees

    (id int

    ,custid int

    ,feeType char(25)

    )

    insert into fees

    (id

    , custid

    ,feeType

    )

    values ('1','1','phonecall')

    ,('2','1','housecall')

    ,('3','2','other')

    declare @list varchar(max)

    select @List = coalesce(@list + ',','') + cast(id as varchar(10)) + cast(feetype as varchar(25))

    from fees where custid = 1

    print @list

  • Try:

    UPDATE customers

    SET fee_history = STUFF(

    (

    select ',' + cast(F.id as varchar(10)) + cast(F.feetype as varchar(25))

    from fees AS F

    where F.custid = customers.custid

    ORDER BY F.id

    FOR XML PATH(''), TYPE

    ).value('.', 'nvarchar(MAX)'), 1, 1, '');

    I hope you realize that this is not a good idea. Think if in the future you would like to query for customers having specific fee types, how would you do it?

    This is one of the inconveniencies of having a not normalized model.

  • Hi

    Firstly thanks. Secondly, the example was a simplified version of what I'm trying to do just to get the concept across, the actual tables are a better design.

    The suggestion worked great with my simple version but unfortunately the real tables seem to contain charachters which the code doesn't like and I'm getting the following error....

    FOR XML could not serialize the data for node 'NoName' because it contains a character (0x0000) which is not allowed in XML. To retrieve this data using FOR XML, convert it to binary, varbinary or image data type and use the BINARY BASE64 directive.

    Have tried replace but no joy. Any suggestions please?

  • WADRIAN68 (4/3/2014)


    Hi

    Firstly thanks. Secondly, the example was a simplified version of what I'm trying to do just to get the concept across, the actual tables are a better design.

    The suggestion worked great with my simple version but unfortunately the real tables seem to contain charachters which the code doesn't like and I'm getting the following error....

    FOR XML could not serialize the data for node 'NoName' because it contains a character (0x0000) which is not allowed in XML. To retrieve this data using FOR XML, convert it to binary, varbinary or image data type and use the BINARY BASE64 directive.

    Have tried replace but no joy. Any suggestions please?

    That is hex for int 0 which is NULL. You can't have a NULL in xml. Do you have any rows where NoName is NULL?

    I agree that this is very bad design. You are breaking 1NF by putting multiple values into a single column. :w00t:

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  • Hi Sean

    It's not a null, haven't found what it is yet but it's something like a line feed, I'll keep looking...

    I'm not planning on storing these values permanently in one column, it's for an extract but I need them as a single string.

    thanks

    Adrian

  • Sean you were correct about the nulls. I discovered a workaround which is detailed below for reference, a fuller explanation is available via the link, perhaps it will be helpful to someone else.

    poor design aside, this now works a treat!

    Many Thanks.

    UPDATE TheTable

    SET TheColumn = REPLACE(CAST(TheColumn as varchar(max)) COLLATE SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS, CHAR(0), '')

    WHERE CAST(TheColumn as varchar(max)) COLLATE SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS like '%' + CHAR(0) + '%'

    http://blogs.visigo.com/chriscoulson/removing-null-characters-0x00-from-values-in-sql-server/

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