Equivalent function to STUFF in SQL (GROUP_CONCAT in MySSQL / LISTAGG in Oracle)

Question

Does anyone know if Firebird 2.5 has a function similar to the "STUFF" function in SQL?

I have a table which contains parent user records, and another table

Answer 1

It looks like you are in luck - Firebird 2.1 introduced a LIST() aggregate function which works like GROUP_CONCAT in MySQL, which allows a query like so:

SELECT p.Name, LIST(c.Name, ', ')
FROM parent p INNER JOIN child c on c.parentid = p.parentid
GROUP by p.Name;

Edit, re Ordering

You may be able to influence ordering by pre-ordering the data in a derived table, prior to applying the LIST aggregation function, like so:

SELECT x.ParentName, LIST(x.ChildName, ', ')
FROM 
(
  SELECT p.Name as ParentName, c.Name as ChildName
  FROM parent p INNER JOIN child c on c.parentid = p.parentid
  ORDER BY c.Name DESC
) x
GROUP by x.ParentName;