Jeff Moden (1/1/2009)
gryphonsclaw (1/1/2009)
You don't have to use a cursor to concatenate a string.DECLARE @myVar varchar(MAX)
SET @myVar = ''
SELECT @myVar = @myVar + mycolumn + ' '
FROM myTable
SELECT @myVar
The author also pointed that out in the article.
Apologies for the newbishness, but this bit of SQL kinda blows my mind because I've been a developer for years, but had never come across code like this. How does this work? Seems like there would have to be an internal cursor at work here. Can someone please point out a link explaining how this style block of code works? It would be greatly appreciated.
I've started reading Itzik Ben Gan's T-SQL Querying book (currently on Ch 4) and hope to learn new appraches and techniques. Ch 1 was indeed eye-opening on the order in which clauses are processed. Sad to say that the db's I'm currently working with at my new job are rife with cursors and udfs. You couldn't possibly design less performant dbs if you tried. Oh, and not one single comment ... anywhere. What did I get myself into?