Concatenate strings in group column

I have following problem:
I want to display a concatenated string in a group row of a report.
The grouping works fine, i can "sum" numerical values etc. as
expected, but i could not find a way to concatenate strings (from the
rows that make up the group). "Join(...)" does not work (gives me an
error message).
I can use "First(...) & Last(...)" to concatenate the string columns
from the first and last row of the group, but couldn't find a way to
concatenate the string columns from all rows...
I am using SQL Server 2005 / Visual Studio 2005.I use a CLR aggregate directly in SQL Server. Hopes your datasource is SQL
Server 2005.
In reports, I use Replace function to change my separator character.
--
Jean-Pierre Riehl
http://blog.djeepy1.net
http://www.bewise.fr
"PR" <pr_gg@.egal.de> wrote in message
news:76e4156a-8805-4e71-927a-7f2c848f295d@.q77g2000hsh.googlegroups.com...
>I have following problem:
> I want to display a concatenated string in a group row of a report.
> The grouping works fine, i can "sum" numerical values etc. as
> expected, but i could not find a way to concatenate strings (from the
> rows that make up the group). "Join(...)" does not work (gives me an
> error message).
> I can use "First(...) & Last(...)" to concatenate the string columns
> from the first and last row of the group, but couldn't find a way to
> concatenate the string columns from all rows...
> I am using SQL Server 2005 / Visual Studio 2005.
>
>|||On Jan 17, 8:21 am, "Jean-Pierre Riehl" <jean-pierre.ri...@.bewise.fr>
wrote:
> I use a CLR aggregate directly in SQL Server. Hopes your datasource is SQL
> Server 2005.
> In reports, I use Replace function to change my separator character.
> --
> Jean-Pierre Riehlhttp://blog.djeepy1.nethttp://www.bewise.fr
> "PR" <pr...@.egal.de> wrote in message
> news:76e4156a-8805-4e71-927a-7f2c848f295d@.q77g2000hsh.googlegroups.com...
>
thanks for the idea. I do use SQL Server 2005, however, since this is
a "group" column in a report, i can't use SQL to concatenate the
strings as i deal with a grouped subset of the sql query result...|||On Jan 16, 9:31=A0am, PR <pr...@.egal.de> wrote:
> I have following problem:
> I want to display a concatenated string in a group row of a report.
> The grouping works fine, i can "sum" numerical values etc. as
> expected, but i could not find a way to concatenate strings (from the
> rows that make up the group). "Join(...)" does not work (gives me an
> error message).
> I can use "First(...) & Last(...)" =A0to concatenate the string columns
> from the first and last row of the group, but couldn't find a way to
> concatenate the string columns from all rows...
> I am using SQL Server 2005 / Visual Studio 2005.
I'm having a hard time visualizing what you want to display. Do you
want your concantenation in each detail row or just in a group header?
Can you mock up an example?|||On Jan 21, 4:06 pm, toolman <t...@.infocision.com> wrote:
> I'm having a hard time visualizing what you want to display. Do you
> want your concantenation in each detail row or just in a group header?
> Can you mock up an example?
I want the concatenation in each detail row. I have some group "sum"s
that work fine, and want to do the same for a string. Basically it's
just a normal grouping of columns with group sums etc.. just that i
need to concatenate a string besides building the group sums.|||On Jan 22, 4:23=A0am, PR <pr...@.egal.de> wrote:
> On Jan 21, 4:06 pm, toolman <t...@.infocision.com> wrote:
> > I'm having a hard time visualizing what you want to display. =A0Do you
> > want your concantenation in each detail row or just in a group header?
> > Can you mock up an example?
> I want the concatenation in each detail row. I have some group "sum"s
> that work fine, and want to do the same for a string. Basically it's
> just a normal grouping of columns with group sums etc.. just that i
> need to concatenate a string besides building the group sums.
Is this what you want?
=3D"String Expression " & SUM(Fields!Name.Value)
It would look something like:
String Expression 1234.56
If you're wanting to concantenate actual field values, say like if
you're grouping on a combination of fields then:
=3DFields!GroupField1.Value & ", " & Fields!GroupField2.Value
would give you something like City, State or Company, Division
HTH|||On Jan 22, 8:57 pm, toolman <t...@.infocision.com> wrote:
> Is this what you want?
> ="String Expression " & SUM(Fields!Name.Value)
> It would look something like:
> String Expression 1234.56
> If you're wanting to concantenate actual field values, say like if
> you're grouping on a combination of fields then:
> =Fields!GroupField1.Value & ", " & Fields!GroupField2.Value
> would give you something like City, State or Company, Division
> HTH
Sorry, no, i don't want to concatenate strings with the sum value of
the group.
I have a grouping in the report, where a sum value (i.e. =Sum(Fields!
Name.NumValue)) is written to one textfield of the row.
What i want to do is concatenate a string from the groups result set -
pretty much like the "Sum" sums up the numerical values from the
result set over the rows. If "Join" would work it would look like
=Join(Fields!Name.StringValue) for the other text field.. but
unfortunately that does not work.
Any ideas ?|||On Jan 23, 3:50=A0am, PR <pr...@.egal.de> wrote:
> On Jan 22, 8:57 pm, toolman <t...@.infocision.com> wrote:
>
> > Is this what you want?
> > =3D"String Expression " & SUM(Fields!Name.Value)
> > It would look something like:
> > String Expression 1234.56
> > If you're wanting to concantenate actual field values, say like if
> > you're grouping on a combination of fields then:
> > =3DFields!GroupField1.Value & ", " & Fields!GroupField2.Value
> > would give you something like City, State or Company, Division
> > HTH
> Sorry, no, i don't want to concatenate strings with the sum value of
> the group.
> I have a grouping in the report, where a sum value (i.e. =3DSum(Fields!
> Name.NumValue)) is written to one textfield of the row.
> What i want to do is concatenate a string from the groups result set -
> pretty much like the "Sum" sums up the numerical values from the
> result set over the rows. If "Join" would work it would look like
> =3DJoin(Fields!Name.StringValue) for the other text field.. but
> unfortunately that does not work.
> Any ideas ?
I think if you can get your Fields!Name.StringValue values into an
array, you could then use Join() to get what you want. Unfortunately,
I'm not enough of a VB or .NET guy to guide you through that.
Hopefully someone else can jump at this point. Sorry I can't get you
further.|||On Jan 23, 5:03 pm, toolman <t...@.infocision.com> wrote:
> I think if you can get your Fields!Name.StringValue values into an
> array, you could then use Join() to get what you want. Unfortunately,
> I'm not enough of a VB or .NET guy to guide you through that.
> Hopefully someone else can jump at this point. Sorry I can't get you
> further.
Thanks for your effort. Yes, Join() requires an array.. and i have no
idea how to convert the string values into an array to do that (and
could not find anything about it in the documentation).|||Hello, PR.
Did you find any solution to your problem? I have the same issue and I can't
find any solution for this...
Thank you.
--
Alexandra
"PR" wrote:
> On Jan 23, 5:03 pm, toolman <t...@.infocision.com> wrote:
> >
> > I think if you can get your Fields!Name.StringValue values into an
> > array, you could then use Join() to get what you want. Unfortunately,
> > I'm not enough of a VB or .NET guy to guide you through that.
> > Hopefully someone else can jump at this point. Sorry I can't get you
> > further.
> Thanks for your effort. Yes, Join() requires an array.. and i have no
> idea how to convert the string values into an array to do that (and
> could not find anything about it in the documentation).
>|||On Feb 22, 12:13 pm, Alexandra Ribeiro
<AlexandraRibe...@.discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:
> Hello, PR.
> Did you find any solution to your problem? I have the same issue and I can't
> find any solution for this...
> Thank you.
> --
> Alexandra
>
Hi Alexandra,
no, i haven't found a solution for this. Maybe using a sub-report is
an option, but i haven't tried this yet.sqlsql

complex SQL select query

Hi all

I im trying to write a SELECT query to display a set of my logged in user's 'Friends'. Although the way that i have designed my tables means that its very complex, and im hoping someone out there can tackle it!

To start ill show you how i contruct friends:

Friends

FriendshipID Incrementing PK
InviteeID Unique UserID of person who offered the friendship link
InvitedID Unique UserID of person who was invites
ApprovedBInvitee True/False - sets to 'True' by default (probably isnt needed come to think of it)
ApprovedByInvited True/False/Declined - an nvarchar

Next, I have my UserDetails table:

UserDetails

UserID Unique UserID PK
UserName Unique Username (foreign key from aspnet_Users as created by aspnet_regsql.exe)
Avatar Integer which represents an image name in a photos folder

So, on the myFriends.aspx i firstly set an invisible label's text property to the unique UserID of the logged in user. This gives me a control paremater for the select statement.

The information I want to display is just the UserName and Avatar of all users who are friends with the logged in user.

I know that to get the records where the logged in user is either that Invited or the Invitee, I do this:

WHERE (@.loggedInUser = Friends.IniteeID)OR (@.loggedInUser = Friends.InvitedID)

(that will show the logged in user as his own friend but i dont mind that)

After that I am stuck more or less... it seems to become very complex... maybe i need 2 queries?

If anyone can help i would be very very grateful

This is actually a very simple query... it may seem a bit complex because you join back twice on the user class... actually, you don't *have* to do that... there are many ways to accomplish this.

SELECT
friendUsers.UserName,
friendUsers.Avatar
FROM
dbo.UserDetails u INNER JOIN dbo.Friends f
ON u.UserID = f.InviteeID OR u.UserID = f.InvitedID
INNER JOIN dbo.UserDetails friendUsers
ON friendUser.UserID = f.InviteeID OR friendUser.UserID = f.InvitedID
WHERE
u.UserID = @.loggedInUser

That should work.

|||

Another way to do it would be this:

SELECT UserName, Avatar FROM dbo.UserDetails
WHERE UserID IN (SELECT UserID FROM dbo.UserDetails, dbo.Friends WHERE UserID = InviteeID OR UserID = InvitedID)

Believe it or not, those are the same query.

|||

Nullable:

SELECT UserName, Avatar FROM dbo.UserDetails
WHERE UserID IN (SELECT UserID FROM dbo.UserDetails, dbo.Friends WHERE UserID = InviteeID OR UserID = InvitedID)

I forgot one more piece to filter down by the current user:

SELECT UserName, Avatar FROM dbo.UserDetails
WHERE UserID IN (SELECT UserID FROM dbo.UserDetails, dbo.Friends WHERE UserID = @.loggedInUser AND (UserID = InviteeID OR UserID = InvitedID))

There :)

|||

Hi Nullable

Thanks for the rsponse, you obviously have more skills with sql than me!

I have tried the corrected second query:

SELECT UserName, Avatar FROM dbo.UserDetails
WHERE UserID IN (SELECT UserID FROM dbo.UserDetails, dbo.Friends WHERE UserID = @.loggedInUser AND (UserID = InviteeID OR UserID = InvitedID))

There is only one friends entry at the moment, one where the logged in userid will be the InvitedID (although that will not always be the case of course)

...that query is returning the Avatar and UserName of that user - the logged in one - rather than those of his friend. We need to stick a WHERE ApprovedByInvited = 'True' too, but i think i can manage that.

Do you know why we are getting the wrong user details?

Thanks again

|||I would recommend a query with a JOIN than with an IN because JOIN works faster. IN is like looking for each value in the IN clause separately. JOIN is like a batch.|||

ndinakar:

I would recommend a query with a JOIN than with an IN because JOIN works faster. IN is like looking for each value in the IN clause separately. JOIN is like a batch.

- Good book knowledge, but unless you run the execution plan on the two and look at the subtree cost, you wouldn't want to make this statement.

I'll look into the query again to see where I crossed wires :)

|||

Heh, my "correction" to my earlier query was done in much haste and not thought out :) ... it was close, but not quite right:

SELECT UserName, Avatar FROM dbo.UserDetails
WHERE UserID IN (SELECT UserID FROM dbo.UserDetails, dbo.Friends WHEREUserID = @.loggedInUser AND (UserID = InviteeID OR UserID = InvitedID))

That is forcing only the current user... which was pretty dumb

SELECT UserName, Avatar FROM dbo.UserDetails
WHERE UserID IN (SELECT UserID FROM dbo.UserDetails, dbo.Friends WHERE UserID != @.loggedInUser
AND (UserID = InviteeID OR UserID = InvitedID) AND (@.loggedInUser= InviteeID OR @.loggedInUser= InvitedID))

To read that in English you would say "Give me the UserName and Avatar FROM the UsersDetails Table WHERE the user that I'm looking at is part of the following list: (Give me all Users who are linked in the friend table WHERE either the user is the Invitee OR the user is the Invited AND the loggedInUser is an Invitee OR the loggedInUser is the Invited)"

Got it? Good :) (Please make sure to mark one of these posts as the answer when you're done so that I know this issue has been resolved.)

Peace,

|||

Nullable:

ndinakar:

I would recommend a query with a JOIN than with an IN because JOIN works faster. IN is like looking for each value in the IN clause separately. JOIN is like a batch.

- Good book knowledge, but unless you run the execution plan on the two and look at the subtree cost, you wouldn't want to make this statement.

- Sorry to correct you like that, I don't mean to seem rude, so here is a quick explaination into why I corrected you.

SELECT

c.*FROM dbo.SysColumns cINNERJOIN dbo.SysObjects oON c.id= o.id
-- Subtree Cost : 0.0317435

SELECT

*FROM dbo.SysColumns cWHERE idIN(SELECT idFROM dbo.SysObjects)
-- Subtree Cost : 0.0317125These two queries will return the EXACT same result set... but the one with the JOIN is actually slightly more expensive (and takes longer) to run... Do you know why? Well, to put it very simply and I will probably be "corrected" on this explaination... but here goes: The RESULTS of the query were only from the SysColumns table... so joining the two (thereby forcing SQL to have to ORDER the SysObjects table by ID to do it's cross streaming) is more expensive than the second query which only needed to get the list of IDs (in any order) from the SysObjects table.

As a punishment for your crime, you must go tohttp://www.SingingEels.com and spread the word!

|||Thank you nullable and French Duke, I must try to reproduce this myself with varying amounts of test data.|||

Hey Timothy

Thanks bro, thats done the job just nicely. Marked you up

|||

Nullable:

Nullable:

ndinakar:

I would recommend a query with a JOIN than with an IN because JOIN works faster. IN is like looking for each value in the IN clause separately. JOIN is like a batch.

- Good book knowledge, but unless you run the execution plan on the two and look at the subtree cost, you wouldn't want to make this statement.

- Sorry to correct you like that, I don't mean to seem rude, so here is a quick explaination into why I corrected you.

SELECT

c.*FROM dbo.SysColumns cINNERJOIN dbo.SysObjects oON c.id= o.id
-- Subtree Cost : 0.0317435

SELECT

*FROM dbo.SysColumns cWHERE idIN(SELECT idFROM dbo.SysObjects)
-- Subtree Cost : 0.0317125These two queries will return the EXACT same result set... but the one with the JOIN is actually slightly more expensive (and takes longer) to run... Do you know why? Well, to put it very simply and I will probably be "corrected" on this explaination... but here goes: The RESULTS of the query were only from the SysColumns table... so joining the two (thereby forcing SQL to have to ORDER the SysObjects table by ID to do it's cross streaming) is more expensive than the second query which only needed to get the list of IDs (in any order) from the SysObjects table.

As a punishment for your crime, you must go tohttp://www.SingingEels.com and spread the word!

Here's one article that I could find with peformance issues with IN:http://support.microsoft.com/kb/829205|||

Just recollected that the queries work differently if you have duplicate records in the subquery table. If your subquery has more records (like a 1-many relationship) doing a JOIN will return multiple records where as an IN might return only one record.

Complex Query or just me?

i have 2 tables. i want to compare 2 columns from the first table and display the contents in the second table (hard to explain)
example:

[TableA]
id ans1 ans2
=============================
bob abc xyz
joe abc www
mike def www
foo def xyz
bar abc xyz

[TableB]
anscode anstext
=========================================
abc Abc is the first 3 letters
def DEF JAM music
www World Wide Web
xyz XYZ best 3 looking letters in the alphabet

[Result should be]
Column1 Column2 Count
================================================== ========================================
Abc is the first 3 letters XYZ best 3 looking letters in the alphabet 2
Abc is the first 3 letters World Wide Web 1
DEF JAM music World Wide We 1
DEF JAM music XYZ best 3 looking letters in the alphabet 1select distinct
b1.anstext, b2.anstext
from tablea a, tableb b1, tableb b2
where a.ans1 = b1.anscode
and a.ans2 = b2.anscode;|||thnx for the reply
im going to try it out when i get home.

leaving work now

thnx|||actually, instead of DISTINCT, this requires a GROUP BY, because the COUNT is needed

so to modify littlefoot's code slightly...select b1.anstext
, b2.anstext
, count(*) as occurrences
from tablea a
inner
join tableb b1
on a.ans1 = b1.anscode
inner
join tableb b2
on a.ans2 = b2.anscode
group
by b1.anstext
, b2.anstext|||perfect
thats what i needed
thnx

just curious, how much different would it be if i wanted to show every possibly, meaning the of the counts would be 0 if the match never occurs. if it is a major add-on dont worry - not sure what the client really wants. thnx|||Gosh, Rudy ... didn't scroll right enough to see the "count" output column ... Sorry, Vextout.

As of your last post: I'd say you'll need outer join to fetch such records.|||yes, just change INNER to LEFT OUTER in the query i gave you|||thnx again

i started playing with the final query i had that with the inner join trying to display all the possibilites with the counts and realized that the whole query has to be changed, but at least i know what to do now.

thnx again for all the help

Comparing two tables

IS there an easy way to compare two tables in sqlserver? I only need to display items that are different between table a and b.
thanks in advance for your help!One quick way is to use EM to script each table then compare both files.|||I was referring to the data in the tables. Sorry for the confusion.|||If you know perl, you should do it with a script like that:

#!C:/Perl/bin/perl.exe
# SYNTAXE : perl script.pl server db user pwd

use DBI;

my @.param = @.ARGV;
my $server = $param[0];
my $database = $param[1];
my $user = $param[2];
my $password = $param[3];

my $dsn = "Driver={SQL Server};Server=$server;Database=$database;Uid=$use r;Pwd=$password;" ;
my $dbh = DBI->connect("dbi:ADO:$dsn") or die "Impossible connection: $DBI::errstr";

my $sth1 = $dbh->prepare( q{
SELECT * FROM table1
}) or die "Can't prepare statement: $DBI::errstr";

my $sth2 = $dbh->prepare( q{
SELECT * FROM table2
}) or die "Can't prepare statement: $DBI::errstr";

my $rc1 = $sth1->execute
or die "Can't execute statement: $DBI::errstr";
my $rc2 = $sth1->execute
or die "Can't execute statement: $DBI::errstr";

while ( @.row1 = $sth1->fetchrow_array and @.row2 = $sth2->fetchrow_array )
{
# do your tests here
}

$rc = $dbh->disconnect;|||Sorry, I don't know pearl. Is there anything on sqlserver?|||Don't see what, except a sql script that you have to write (like the one in perl) :)|||IS there an easy way to compare two tables in sqlserver? I only need to display items that are different between table a and b.

thanks in advance for your help!What exactly do you mean by "items"? Do your tables have Primary Keys (if not, this problems gets incredibly ugly)? What exactly do you want displayed when a difference is found?

The best bet might be to compose a sample set of data that contains a pair of 5 row tables with one row "missing" in each of them, and the output that you'd like to get from comparing them.

-PatP|||You mean like

USE Northwind
GO

SET NOCOUNT ON
CREATE TABLE myTable99(Col1 int IDENTITY(1,1) PRIMARY KEY, Col2 char(1))
CREATE TABLE myTable00(Col1 int IDENTITY(1,1) PRIMARY KEY, Col2 char(1))
GO

INSERT INTO myTable99(Col2)
SELECT 'a' UNION ALL
SELECT 'b' UNION ALL
SELECT 'c' UNION ALL
SELECT 'd'

INSERT INTO myTable00(Col2)
SELECT 'a' UNION ALL
SELECT 'x' UNION ALL
SELECT 'c' UNION ALL
SELECT 'z'
GO

SELECT a.Col1, a.Col2, b.Col2
FROM myTable99 a
INNER JOIN myTable00 b
ON a.Col1 = b.Col1
WHERE a.Col2 <> b.Col2
GO

SET NOCOUNT OFF
DROP TABLE myTable99
DROP TABLE myTable00
GO|||Try this:
http://www.sqlservercentral.com/scripts/contributions/596.asp|||Ummm ... isn't it much easier than that? How about

SELECT value1, value2, value3, value4, value5
FROM table1
WHERE value1 NOT IN (SELECT value1 FROM table2)