collecting values into a variable in a loop

Dear All,

Im trying to collect values from a query into a single variable within a loop, like so:

WHILE condition is true
BEGIN

SET @.intLoop = @.intLoop + 1

@.myString = @.myString + , + (SELECT companyName FROM @.tblTheseComp WHERE id = @.intLoop

END

For some reason though the @.myString does not collect up the values, but will equal NULL at the end of the loop.

If however I simple do

WHILE condition is true
BEGIN

SET @.intLoop = @.intLoop + 1

@.myString = (SELECT companyName FROM @.tblTheseComp WHERE id = @.intLoop
END

Then I get the last value from the query as expected.

Can anyone explain why this might be?

Thanks in advance!Hi

Your variable is null initially -
NULL +'Something' = NULL

HTH|||Also - you don't need a loop:

DECLARE @.myString AS VarChar(1000)

SELECT @.myString = ''

SELECT @.myString = @.myString + ', ' + companyName
FROM @.tblTheseComp

SELECT @.myString = SUBSTRING(@.myString, 3, LEN(@.myString)-2)

SELECT @.myString|||This code will handle if any of the companyName is null.

DECLARE @.myString AS VarChar(1000)
SELECT @.myString = ''

SELECT @.myString = @.myString + coalesce(companyName+',','')
FROM @.tblTheseComp

SELECT @.myString = SUBSTRING(@.myString, 1, LEN(@.myString)-1)

SELECT @.myString|||Nice one thanks a lot! A final obsticle and I'm there!

As I need to send a list of action items to my users, I need to add a carriage return at the end of each line, any idea how I would do that, the mail is sent as a text file so I assume I'll need the CTRL + M combination or in ASCII:

Char: CR, Oct:15, Dec:13, Hex:d

Any ideas anyone?|||Hmm wasnt that tricky I needed CHAR(13) + CHAR(10) cool, thanks for all the help again!|||add char(13) with ur string.
eg:

PRINT 'First line.' + CHAR(13) + CHAR(10) + 'Second line.'|||Thanks yes I noticed I had to include a string to add CHAR(13) + CHAR(10) to. Cheers!