Aggregate function to concatenate strings in T-SQL

You know how many a time you need to get the results of a query as a strings list, let's say a CSV and there is nothing in Microsoft SQL Server to help you? What you would like is something like an aggregate function similar to SUM that returns the concatenated value of all strings in the SELECT query.

From SQL Server 2017 on, there is such a function called STRING_AGG and you use it just like one might expect.

If you have an older version of SQL Server... upgrade :) But if you can't, here is a solution:

And before SQL Server 2008 that was the case, you needed to use variables and SELECT @S=@S+[Value] FROM .... But in SQL 2008 they added more XML support and thus the data() XML PATH method. Take notice that this method adds a space between atomic values. So, without further ado, here is the code to concatenate several values into a comma separated value string:

DECLARE @T TABLE(S NVARCHAR(Max))
INSERT INTO @T VALUES('Filet'),('T-bone'),('Sausage'),('Würstel') -- enough with the fruity examples!

SELECT CONVERT(NVARCHAR(Max),(SELECT S+',' AS 'data()' FROM @T t
FOR XML PATH('')))

Result: Filet, T-bone, Sausage, Würstel, - of course, remove the last comma.

Update: What if I have a table with multiple columns and I just want to aggregate one?

The solution is to use the select with WHERE clauses on the GROUP BY columns. Here is an example:

DECLARE @t TABLE(col1 NVARCHAR(Max), col2 INT, value NVARCHAR(Max) )
INSERT INTO @T VALUES ('a',1,'1'),
('a',1,'2'),
('a',2,'3'),
('b',1,'1'),
('b',1,'2'),
('c',3,'67')
 
--SELECT * FROM @t t
 
SELECT col1, col2, CONVERT(NVARCHAR(Max),(
    SELECT value+',' AS 'data()' FROM @T t2  
        WHERE t1.col1 = t2.col1 
            AND t1.col2 = t2.col2 
        FOR XML PATH('')))
FROM @t t1
GROUP BY col1, col2