Using COALESCE in SQL view

Question

I need to create a view from several tables. One of the columns in the view will have to be composed out of a number of rows from one of the table as a string with comma-separat

Answer 1

In SQL Server 2008, you can take advantage of some of the features added for XML to do this all in one query without using a stored proc:

 SELECT CustomerName,
    STUFF( -- "STUFF" deletes the leading ', '
        ( SELECT ', ' + OrderName
        FROM Orders
        WHERE CustomerId = Customers.CutomerId
        -- This causes the sub-select to be returned as a concatenated string
        FOR XML PATH('') 
        ),
    1, 2, '' )
    AS Orders
 FROM Customers