Passing a varchar full of comma delimited values to a SQL Server IN function

Question

Duplicate of
Dynamic SQL Comma Delimited Value Query
Parameterized Queries with Like and In

I have a SQL Server Stored Procedure where I would like to pass a varchar full of comma delimited values to an IN function. For example:

DECLARE @Ids varchar(50);
SET @Ids = '1,2,3,5,4,6,7,98,234';

SELECT * 
FROM sometable 
WHERE tableid IN (@Ids);

This does not work of course. I get the error:

Conversion failed when converting the varchar value '1,2,3,5,4,6,7,98,234' to data type int.

How can I accomplish this (or something relatively similar) without resorting to building dynamic SQL?

Answer 1

Of course if you're lazy like me, you could just do this:

Declare @Ids varchar(50) Set @Ids = ',1,2,3,5,4,6,7,98,234,'

Select * from sometable
 where Charindex(','+cast(tableid as varchar(8000))+',', @Ids) > 0

Answer 2

Don't use a function that loops to split a string!, my function below will split a string very fast, with no looping!

Before you use my function, you need to set up a "helper" table, you only need to do this one time per database:

CREATE TABLE Numbers
(Number int  NOT NULL,
    CONSTRAINT PK_Numbers PRIMARY KEY CLUSTERED (Number ASC)WITH (PAD_INDEX  = OFF, STATISTICS_NORECOMPUTE  = OFF, IGNORE_DUP_KEY = OFF, ALLOW_ROW_LOCKS  = ON, ALLOW_PAGE_LOCKS  = ON) ON [PRIMARY]
) ON [PRIMARY]
DECLARE @x int
SET @x=0
WHILE @x<8000
BEGIN
    SET @x=@x+1
    INSERT INTO Numbers VALUES (@x)
END

use this function to split your string, which does not loop and is very fast:

CREATE FUNCTION [dbo].[FN_ListToTable]
(
     @SplitOn              char(1)              --REQUIRED, the character to split the @List string on
    ,@List                 varchar(8000)        --REQUIRED, the list to split apart
)
RETURNS
@ParsedList table
(
    ListValue varchar(500)
)
AS
BEGIN

/**
Takes the given @List string and splits it apart based on the given @SplitOn character.
A table is returned, one row per split item, with a column name "ListValue".
This function workes for fixed or variable lenght items.
Empty and null items will not be included in the results set.


Returns a table, one row per item in the list, with a column name "ListValue"

EXAMPLE:
----------
SELECT * FROM dbo.FN_ListToTable(',','1,12,123,1234,54321,6,A,*,|||,,,,B')

    returns:
        ListValue  
        -----------
        1
        12
        123
        1234
        54321
        6
        A
        *
        |||
        B

        (10 row(s) affected)

**/



----------------
--SINGLE QUERY-- --this will not return empty rows
----------------
INSERT INTO @ParsedList
        (ListValue)
    SELECT
        ListValue
        FROM (SELECT
                  LTRIM(RTRIM(SUBSTRING(List2, number+1, CHARINDEX(@SplitOn, List2, number+1)-number - 1))) AS ListValue
                  FROM (
                           SELECT @SplitOn + @List + @SplitOn AS List2
                       ) AS dt
                      INNER JOIN Numbers n ON n.Number < LEN(dt.List2)
                  WHERE SUBSTRING(List2, number, 1) = @SplitOn
             ) dt2
        WHERE ListValue IS NOT NULL AND ListValue!=''



RETURN

END --Function FN_ListToTable

you can use this function as a table in a join:

SELECT
    Col1, COl2, Col3...
    FROM  YourTable
        INNER JOIN FN_ListToTable(',',@YourString) s ON  YourTable.ID = s.ListValue

Here is your example:

Select * from sometable where tableid in(SELECT ListValue FROM dbo.FN_ListToTable(',',@Ids) s)

Answer 3

No Table No Function No Loop

Building on the idea of parsing your list into a table our DBA suggested using XML.

Declare @Ids varchar(50)
Set @Ids = ‘1,2,3,5,4,6,7,98,234’

DECLARE @XML XML
SET @XML = CAST('<i>' + REPLACE(@Ids, ',', '</i><i>') + '</i>' AS XML)

SELECT * 
FROM
    SomeTable 
    INNER JOIN @XML.nodes('i') x(i) 
        ON  SomeTable .Id = x.i.value('.', 'VARCHAR(MAX)')

These seems to have the same performance as @KM's answer but, I think, a lot simpler.

Answer 4

You can create a function that returns a table.

so your statement would be something like

select * from someable 
 join Splitfunction(@ids) as splits on sometable.id = splits.id

Here is a simular function.

CREATE FUNCTION [dbo].[FUNC_SplitOrderIDs]
(
    @OrderList varchar(500)
)
RETURNS 
@ParsedList table
(
    OrderID int
)
AS
BEGIN
    DECLARE @OrderID varchar(10), @Pos int

    SET @OrderList = LTRIM(RTRIM(@OrderList))+ ','
    SET @Pos = CHARINDEX(',', @OrderList, 1)

    IF REPLACE(@OrderList, ',', '') <> ''
    BEGIN
        WHILE @Pos > 0
        BEGIN
            SET @OrderID = LTRIM(RTRIM(LEFT(@OrderList, @Pos - 1)))
            IF @OrderID <> ''
            BEGIN
                INSERT INTO @ParsedList (OrderID) 
                VALUES (CAST(@OrderID AS int)) --Use Appropriate conversion
            END
            SET @OrderList = RIGHT(@OrderList, LEN(@OrderList) - @Pos)
            SET @Pos = CHARINDEX(',', @OrderList, 1)

        END
    END 
    RETURN
END

Answer 5

It's a very common question. Canned answer, several nice techniques:

http://www.sommarskog.se/arrays-in-sql-2005.html

Answer 6

This works perfectly! The below answers are too complicated. Don't look at this as dynamic. Set up your store procedure as follows:

(@id as varchar(50))
as

Declare @query as nvarchar(max)
set @query ='
select * from table
where id in('+@id+')'
EXECUTE sp_executesql @query

Answer 7

I can suggest using WITH like this:

DECLARE @Delim char(1) = ',';
SET @Ids = @Ids + @Delim;

WITH CTE(i, ls, id) AS (
    SELECT 1, CHARINDEX(@Delim, @Ids, 1), SUBSTRING(@Ids, 1, CHARINDEX(@Delim, @Ids, 1) - 1)
    UNION ALL
    SELECT i + 1, CHARINDEX(@Delim, @Ids, ls + 1), SUBSTRING(@Ids, ls + 1, CHARINDEX(@Delim, @Ids, ls + 1) - CHARINDEX(@Delim, @Ids, ls) - 1)
    FROM CTE
    WHERE  CHARINDEX(@Delim, @Ids, ls + 1) > 1
)
SELECT t.*
FROM yourTable t
    INNER JOIN
    CTE c
    ON t.id = c.id;

Answer 8

Without using dynamic SQL, you have to take the input variable and use a split function to put the data into a temp table and then join to that.

Answer 9

Thanks, for your function I Used IT........................ This is my EXAMPLE

**UPDATE [RD].[PurchaseOrderHeader]
SET     [DispatchCycleNumber] ='10'
 WHERE  OrderNumber in(select * FROM XA.fn_SplitOrderIDs(@InvoiceNumberList))**


CREATE FUNCTION [XA].[fn_SplitOrderIDs]
(
    @OrderList varchar(500)
)
RETURNS 
@ParsedList table
(
    OrderID int
)
AS
BEGIN
    DECLARE @OrderID varchar(10), @Pos int

    SET @OrderList = LTRIM(RTRIM(@OrderList))+ ','
    SET @Pos = CHARINDEX(',', @OrderList, 1)

    IF REPLACE(@OrderList, ',', '') <> ''
    BEGIN
        WHILE @Pos > 0
        BEGIN
                SET @OrderID = LTRIM(RTRIM(LEFT(@OrderList, @Pos - 1)))
                IF @OrderID <> ''
                BEGIN
                        INSERT INTO @ParsedList (OrderID) 
                        VALUES (CAST(@OrderID AS int)) --Use Appropriate conversion
                END
                SET @OrderList = RIGHT(@OrderList, LEN(@OrderList) - @Pos)
                SET @Pos = CHARINDEX(',', @OrderList, 1)

        END
    END 
    RETURN
END

Answer 10

If you use SQL Server 2008 or higher, use table valued parameters; for example:

CREATE PROCEDURE [dbo].[GetAccounts](@accountIds nvarchar)
AS
BEGIN
    SELECT * 
    FROM accountsTable 
    WHERE accountId IN (select * from @accountIds)
END

CREATE TYPE intListTableType AS TABLE (n int NOT NULL)

DECLARE @tvp intListTableType 

-- inserts each id to one row in the tvp table    
INSERT @tvp(n) VALUES (16509),(16685),(46173),(42925),(46167),(5511)

EXEC GetAccounts @tvp

Answer 11

Its been a while but I have done this in the past using XML as a interim.

I can't take any credit for this, but I'm afraid I no longer know where I got this idea from:

-- declare the variables needed
DECLARE @xml as xml,@str as varchar(100),@delimiter as varchar(10)

-- The string you want to split
SET @str='A,B,C,D,E,Bert,Ernie,1,2,3,4,5'

-- What you want to split on. Can be a single character or a string
SET @delimiter =','

-- Convert it to an XML document
SET @xml = cast(('<X>'+replace(@str,@delimiter ,'</X><X>')+'</X>') as xml)

-- Select back from the XML
SELECT N.value('.', 'varchar(10)') as value FROM @xml.nodes('X') as T(N)

Answer 12

Create a table function like below which parse comma separated varchar and returns a table that can be inner joined with other tables.

CREATE FUNCTION [dbo].[fn_SplitList]
(
  @inString     varchar(MAX)  = '',
  @inDelimiter  char(1)       = ',' -- Keep the delimiter to 100 chars or less.  Generally a delimiter will be 1-2 chars only.
)
RETURNS @tbl_Return  table
(
  Unit  varchar(1000) COLLATE Latin1_General_BIN
)
AS
BEGIN 
    INSERT INTO @tbl_Return
    SELECT DISTINCT
      LTRIM(RTRIM(piece.value('./text()[1]', 'varchar(1000)'))) COLLATE DATABASE_DEFAULT AS Unit
    FROM
    (
      --
      --  Replace any delimiters in the string with the "X" tag.
      --
      SELECT
        CAST(('<X>' + REPLACE(s0.prsString, s0.prsSplitDelimit, '</X><X>') + '</X>') AS xml).query('.') AS units
      FROM
      (
        --
        --  Convert the string and delimiter into XML.
        --
        SELECT
          (SELECT @inString FOR XML PATH('')) AS prsString,
          (SELECT @inDelimiter FOR XML PATH('')) AS prsSplitDelimit
      ) AS s0
    ) AS s1
    CROSS APPLY units.nodes('X') x(piece)
  RETURN
END

================================================= Now consume above created table function in your code,creation of function is one time activity in your database that can be used across databases as well on same server.

DECLARE @Ids varchar(50);
SET @Ids = '1,2,3,5,4,6,7,98,234';

SELECT
     *
FROM sometable AS st
INNER JOIN fn_SplitList(@ids, ',') AS sl
     ON sl.unit = st.tableid

Answer 13

I think a very simple solution could be following:

DECLARE @Ids varchar(50);
SET @Ids = '1,2,3,5,4,6,7,98,234';

SELECT * 
FROM sometable 
WHERE ','+@Ids+',' LIKE '%,'+CONVERT(VARCHAR(50),tableid)+',%';

Answer 14

I have same idea with user KM. but do not need extra table Number. Just this function only.

CREATE FUNCTION [dbo].[FN_ListToTable]
(
    @SplitOn              char(1)              --REQUIRED, the character to split the @List string on
   ,@List                 varchar(8000)        --REQUIRED, the list to split apart
)
RETURNS
@ParsedList table
(
    ListValue varchar(500)
)
AS
BEGIN
    DECLARE @number int = 0
    DECLARE @childString varchar(502) = ''
    DECLARE @lengthChildString int = 0
    DECLARE @processString varchar(502) = @SplitOn + @List + @SplitOn

    WHILE @number < LEN(@processString)
    BEGIN
        SET @number = @number + 1
        SET @lengthChildString = CHARINDEX(@SplitOn, @processString, @number + 1) - @number - 1
        IF @lengthChildString > 0
        BEGIN
            SET @childString = LTRIM(RTRIM(SUBSTRING(@processString, @number + 1, @lengthChildString)))

            IF @childString IS NOT NULL AND @childString != ''
            BEGIN
                INSERT INTO @ParsedList(ListValue) VALUES (@childString)
                SET @number = @number + @lengthChildString - 1
            END
        END
    END

RETURN

END

And here is the test:

SELECT ListValue FROM dbo.FN_ListToTable('/','a/////bb/c')

Result:

   ListValue
______________________
   a
   bb
   c

Answer 15

Try this:

SELECT ProductId, Name, Tags  
FROM Product  
WHERE '1,2,3,' LIKE '%' + CAST(ProductId AS VARCHAR(20)) + ',%'; 

As said on the last example of this link

Answer 16

I've written a stored procedure to show how to do this before. You basically have to process the string. I tried to post the code here but the formatting got all screwy.

IF EXISTS (SELECT * FROM dbo.sysobjects WHERE id = object_id(N'[dbo].[uspSplitTextList]') AND OBJECTPROPERTY(id, N'IsProcedure') = 1)
   DROP PROCEDURE [dbo].[uspSplitTextList]
GO

SET QUOTED_IDENTIFIER ON 
GO
SET ANSI_NULLS ON 
GO


/* ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ */
-- uspSplitTextList
--
-- Description:
--    splits a separated list of text items and returns the text items
--
-- Arguments:
--    @list_text        - list of text items
--    @Delimiter        - delimiter
--
-- Notes:
-- 02/22/2006 - WSR : use DATALENGTH instead of LEN throughout because LEN doesn't count trailing blanks
--
-- History:
-- 02/22/2006 - WSR : revised algorithm to account for items crossing 8000 character boundary
-- 09/18/2006 - WSR : added to this project
--
CREATE PROCEDURE uspSplitTextList
   @list_text           text,
   @Delimiter           varchar(3)
AS

SET NOCOUNT ON

DECLARE @InputLen       integer         -- input text length
DECLARE @TextPos        integer         -- current position within input text
DECLARE @Chunk          varchar(8000)   -- chunk within input text
DECLARE @ChunkPos       integer         -- current position within chunk
DECLARE @DelimPos       integer         -- position of delimiter
DECLARE @ChunkLen       integer         -- chunk length
DECLARE @DelimLen       integer         -- delimiter length
DECLARE @ItemBegPos     integer         -- item starting position in text
DECLARE @ItemOrder      integer         -- item order in list
DECLARE @DelimChar      varchar(1)      -- first character of delimiter (simple delimiter)

-- create table to hold list items
-- actually their positions because we may want to scrub this list eliminating bad entries before substring is applied
CREATE TABLE #list_items ( item_order integer, item_begpos integer, item_endpos integer )

-- process list
IF @list_text IS NOT NULL
   BEGIN

   -- initialize
   SET @InputLen = DATALENGTH(@list_text)
   SET @TextPos = 1
   SET @DelimChar = SUBSTRING(@Delimiter, 1, 1)
   SET @DelimLen = DATALENGTH(@Delimiter)
   SET @ItemBegPos = 1
   SET @ItemOrder = 1
   SET @ChunkLen = 1

   -- cycle through input processing chunks
   WHILE @TextPos <= @InputLen AND @ChunkLen <> 0
      BEGIN

      -- get current chunk
      SET @Chunk = SUBSTRING(@list_text, @TextPos, 8000)

      -- setup initial variable values
      SET @ChunkPos = 1
      SET @ChunkLen = DATALENGTH(@Chunk)
      SET @DelimPos = CHARINDEX(@DelimChar, @Chunk, @ChunkPos)

      -- loop over the chunk, until the last delimiter
      WHILE @ChunkPos <= @ChunkLen AND @DelimPos <> 0
         BEGIN

         -- see if this is a full delimiter
         IF SUBSTRING(@list_text, (@TextPos + @DelimPos - 1), @DelimLen) = @Delimiter
            BEGIN

            -- insert position
            INSERT INTO #list_items (item_order, item_begpos, item_endpos)
            VALUES (@ItemOrder, @ItemBegPos, (@TextPos + @DelimPos - 1) - 1)

            -- adjust positions
            SET @ItemOrder = @ItemOrder + 1
            SET @ItemBegPos = (@TextPos + @DelimPos - 1) + @DelimLen
            SET @ChunkPos = @DelimPos + @DelimLen

            END
         ELSE
            BEGIN

            -- adjust positions
            SET @ChunkPos = @DelimPos + 1

            END

         -- find next delimiter      
         SET @DelimPos = CHARINDEX(@DelimChar, @Chunk, @ChunkPos)

         END

      -- adjust positions
      SET @TextPos = @TextPos + @ChunkLen

      END

   -- handle last item
   IF @ItemBegPos <= @InputLen
      BEGIN

      -- insert position
      INSERT INTO #list_items (item_order, item_begpos, item_endpos)
      VALUES (@ItemOrder, @ItemBegPos, @InputLen)

      END

   -- delete the bad items
   DELETE FROM #list_items
   WHERE item_endpos < item_begpos

   -- return list items
   SELECT SUBSTRING(@list_text, item_begpos, (item_endpos - item_begpos + 1)) AS item_text, item_order, item_begpos, item_endpos
   FROM #list_items
   ORDER BY item_order

   END

DROP TABLE #list_items

RETURN

/* ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ */

GO
SET QUOTED_IDENTIFIER OFF 
GO
SET ANSI_NULLS ON 
GO

Answer 17

-- select * from dbo.Split_ID('77,106')  

    ALTER FUNCTION dbo.Split_ID(@String varchar(8000))     
    returns @temptable TABLE (ID varchar(8000))     
    as     
    begin     
        declare @idx int     
        declare @slice varchar(8000)     
        declare @Delimiter char(1)
         set @Delimiter =','

        select @idx = 1     
            if len(@String)<1 or @String is null  return     

        while @idx!= 0     
        begin     
            set @idx = charindex(@Delimiter,@String)     
            if @idx!=0     
                set @slice = left(@String,@idx - 1)     
            else     
                set @slice = @String     

            if(len(@slice)>0)
                insert into @temptable(ID) values(@slice)     

            set @String = right(@String,len(@String) - @idx)     
            if len(@String) = 0 break     
        end 
    return     
    end

Answer 18

You could do it like this:

create or replace 
PROCEDURE UDP_SETBOOKMARK 
(
  P_USERID IN VARCHAR2  
, P_BOOKMARK IN VARCHAR2  
) AS 
BEGIN

UPDATE T_ER_Bewertung
SET LESEZEICHEN = P_BOOKMARK
WHERE STAMM_ID in( select regexp_substr(P_USERID,'[^,]+', 1, level) from dual
                   connect by regexp_substr(P_USERID, '[^,]+', 1, level) is not null )
and ER_ID = (select max(ER_ID) from T_ER_Bewertung_Kopie);

commit;

END UDP_SETBOOKMARK;

Then try it with

Begin
UDP_SETBOOKMARK ('1,2,3,4,5', 'Test');
End;

You can use this IN-Clause with regexp_substr in other situations too, just try it.

Answer 19

Error 493: The column 'i' that was returned from the nodes() method cannot be 
   used directly. It can only be used with one of the four XML data type 
   methods, exist(), nodes(), query(), and value(), or in IS NULL and IS NOT 
   NULL checks.

The above errorr was fixed in SQL Server 2014 by using following snippet

Declare @Ids varchar(50)
Set @Ids = '1,2,3,5,4,6,7,98,234'

DECLARE @XML XML
SET @XML = CAST('<i>' + REPLACE(@Ids, ',', '</i><i>') + '</i>' AS XML)

SELECT SomeTable.* 
FROM
    SomeTable 
    cross apply @XML.nodes('i') x(i) 
        where SomeTable .Id = x.i.value('.', 'VARCHAR(MAX)')

Answer 20

Best and simple approach.

DECLARE @AccumulateKeywordCopy NVARCHAR(2000),@IDDupCopy NVARCHAR(50);
SET @AccumulateKeywordCopy ='';
SET @IDDupCopy ='';
SET @IDDup = (SELECT CONVERT(VARCHAR(MAX), <columnName>) FROM <tableName> WHERE <clause>)

SET @AccumulateKeywordCopy = ','+@AccumulateKeyword+',';
SET @IDDupCopy = ','+@IDDup +',';
SET @IDDupCheck = CHARINDEX(@IDDupCopy,@AccumulateKeywordCopy)

Answer 21

The simplest way i found was to use FIND_IN_SET

FIND_IN_SET(column_name, values)

values=(1,2,3)

SELECT name WHERE FIND_IN_SET(id, values)

Answer 22

CREATE TABLE t 
  ( 
     id   INT, 
     col1 VARCHAR(50) 
  ) 

INSERT INTO t 
VALUES     (1, 
            'param1') 

INSERT INTO t 
VALUES     (2, 
            'param2') 

INSERT INTO t 
VALUES     (3, 
            'param3') 

INSERT INTO t 
VALUES     (4, 
            'param4') 

INSERT INTO t 
VALUES     (5, 
            'param5') 

DECLARE @params VARCHAR(100) 

SET @params = ',param1,param2,param3,' 

SELECT * 
FROM   t 
WHERE  Charindex(',' + Cast(col1 AS VARCHAR(8000)) + ',', @params) > 0 

working fiddle find here Fiddle

Answer 23

I ran into the same issue, and I don't want to have any footprint on the source database - i.e. no stored procedures or functions. I went about it this way:

declare @IDs table (Value int)

insert into @IDs values(1)
insert into @IDs values(2)
insert into @IDs values(3)
insert into @IDs values(5)
insert into @IDs values(4)
insert into @IDs values(6)
insert into @IDs values(7)
insert into @IDs values(98)
insert into @IDs values(234)


SELECT * 
FROM sometable 
WHERE tableid IN (select Value from @IDs)

Answer 24

The answer by @RBarryYoung (above) worked for me. But when you have spaces in between the comma separated string values, then it will omit IDs with spaces. So I removed the spaces.

Take a look at the code snippet below.

Declare @Ids varchar(50) Set @Ids = '1   ,   2,3'
set @Ids=','+Replace(@Ids,' ', '')+',';

Select * from [tblEmployee]
where Charindex(','+cast(ID as varchar(8000))+',', @Ids) > 0

Answer 25

This came in handy for one of my requirements where I did not want to use CTE and also did not want to go with the inner join.

DECLARE @Ids varchar(50);
SET @Ids = '1,2,3,5,4,6,7,98,234';
    
SELECT
   cn1,cn2,cn3
FROM tableName
WHERE columnName in (select Value from fn_SplitString(@ids, ','))

Function for split string :

CREATE FUNCTION [dbo].[fn_SplitString] ( @stringToSplit VARCHAR(MAX), @seperator Char )  
RETURNS  
 @returnList TABLE ([Value] [nvarchar] (500))  
AS  
BEGIN  
  
 DECLARE @name NVARCHAR(255)  
 DECLARE @pos INT  
  
 WHILE CHARINDEX(@seperator, @stringToSplit) > 0  
 BEGIN  
  SELECT @pos  = CHARINDEX(@seperator, @stringToSplit)    
  SELECT @name = SUBSTRING(@stringToSplit, 1, @pos-1)  
  
  INSERT INTO @returnList   
  SELECT @name  
  
  SELECT @stringToSplit = SUBSTRING(@stringToSplit, @pos+1, LEN(@stringToSplit)-@pos)  
 END  
  
 INSERT INTO @returnList  
 SELECT @stringToSplit  
  
 RETURN  
END