SQL Server while loop union all [closed]

Answer 1

This way gets rid of the the UNION statement and avoids a loop altogether:

DECLARE @position INT
SET @position = 5

DECLARE @n TABLE (n int)

INSERT INTO @n 
SELECT ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDER BY name) AS x
FROM syscolumns

SELECT t.* 
FROM dbo.Table t
    CROSS JOIN @n n 
WHERE n <= @position