Should table-valued parameters be used here?

Question

I have following query:

 @\"UPDATE students SET IsDeleted = 1 WHERE StudentId IN (
         SELECT StudentId FROM Class where PassId IN (
              SELECT Id         


        

Answer 1

Yes, use table-valued parameters. First create a type:

CREATE TYPE dbo.StudentIDs(ID INT PRIMARY KEY);

Now your procedure can use this (note that I've changed your nested IN queries to a proper join):

CREATE PROCEDURE dbo.MarkStudentsAsDeleted
  @IDs dbo.StudentIDs READONLY
AS
BEGIN
  SET NOCOUNT ON;

  UPDATE s SET IsDeleted = 1
    FROM dbo.Students AS s
    INNER JOIN dbo.Class AS c
    ON s.StudentId = c.StudentId
    INNER JOIN dbo.ClassValueTable AS ct
    ON c.PassId = ct.Id
    WHERE ct.IsDeleted <> 1
    AND EXISTS (SELECT 1 FROM @IDs WHERE StudentID = s.StudentID);
END 
GO

And your C# code would pass in a DataTable or however you've assembled the collection of activeIds, rather than a comma-separated list.

DataTable dt = new DataTable();
dt.Columns.Add("ID", typeof(int));
dt.Rows.Add(1);
dt.Rows.Add(2);
dt.Rows.Add(3);
dt.Rows.Add(4);

... open connection etc. ...

SqlCommand cmd = new SqlCommand("dbo.MarkStudentsAsDeleted", conn);
cmd.CommandType = CommandType.StoredProcedure;
SqlParameter tvp1 = cmd.Parameters.AddWithValue("@IDs", dt);
tvp1.SqlDbType = SqlDbType.Structured;
cmd.ExecuteNonQuery();

... close, dispose, etc. ...

If you want to insist on passing a string into the stored procedure, you'll need to use a split function. For example:

CREATE FUNCTION dbo.SplitInts
(
   @List       VARCHAR(MAX),
   @Delimiter  VARCHAR(255) = ','
)
RETURNS TABLE
WITH SCHEMABINDING 
AS
  RETURN 
  (  
    SELECT [value] = y.i.value('(./text())[1]', 'int')
    FROM 
    ( 
      SELECT x = CONVERT(XML, '<i>' 
        + REPLACE(@List, @Delimiter, '</i><i>') 
        + '</i>').query('.')
    ) AS a CROSS APPLY x.nodes('i') AS y(i)
  );
GO

Now your stored procedure can be:

CREATE PROCEDURE dbo.MarkStudentsAsDeleted
  @IDs VARCHAR(MAX)
AS
BEGIN
  SET NOCOUNT ON;

  UPDATE s SET IsDeleted = 1
    FROM dbo.Students AS s
    INNER JOIN dbo.Class AS c
    ON s.StudentId = c.StudentId
    INNER JOIN dbo.ClassValueTable AS ct
    ON c.PassId = ct.Id
    WHERE ct.IsDeleted <> 1
    AND EXISTS (SELECT 1 FROM dbo.SplitInts(@IDs, ',') WHERE Item = s.StudentID);
END 
GO