SQL with Manoj

This post comes from an old discussion on MSDN T-SQL Forum[link], where someone asked about the same topic.

Check my reply there and here with this post I’m going to collate all the different methods I’ve blog previously that can be used for the same purpose.
 

Stored Procedures accept only a fixed and pre-defined number of parameters thus there is a limitation you cannot provide dynamic number of params, like you can do with other languages, like C, C#, Java, etc. In these languages there is concept of Arrays which you can pass in a method/function, but in SQL there are no array variables and it does not have any datatype that support arrays. Thus if you have to provide multiple values to any parameter you cannot do it directly, though there are some workarounds.
 

–> Here are some of the methods or workarounds by which we can pass multiple values as a single Parameter in a Stored Procedure or a Function:

Method #1 – Passing a CSV: list of strings as a parameter to a (N)VARCHAR datatype parameter, then splitting/parsing it inside the SP or UDF, check here.

Method #2 – Passing an XML: string as an XML datatype parameter. We will need to parse the XML inside the SP, check here.

Method #3 – Using a temp table: inside an SP which is created outside just before its execution. Here there is no need to pass any parameter with the SP, check here.

Method #4 – Using TVPs: With SQL Server 2008 and above you can create TVPs or Table Valued Parameters and declare them by using user-defined table types. These TVPs can then be used to send multiple rows of data to SPs or UDFs, without creating a temp table or multiple parameters, check here.

Method #5 – Passing a JSON string: as a NVARCHAR datatype parameter. We will need to parse the JSON inside the SP, check here.
 

Thanks a lot, please provide your valuable comments and suggestions on this topic.
 

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