Combining many records into 1

Using SQL 2000, how can you combine multiple records into 1?
The source data is varchar(255), the destination will be text. I need help
with the select statement.

example tables:
CREATE TABLE [NoteHeader] (
[NoteID] [int],
[CustomerID] [int] ,
[Desc1] [varchar] (255),
[Date] [datetime] ,
)
GO

CREATE TABLE [NoteDetail] (
[NoteId] [int],
[SeqNum] [int] NOT NULL ,
[Note1] [varchar] (255),
[Note2] [varchar] (255),
[Note3] [varchar] (255),
[Note4] [varchar] (255),
[Note5] [varchar] (255)
)
GO

Sample script joining tables:
SELECT *
FROM NoteHeader INNER JOIN
NoteDetail ON NoteHeader.NoteID = NoteDetail.NoteId

Sample results:
NoteID CustomerID Desc1 Date
Note1 Note2
....Note5
1111 987 Note Header Description 2007-07-15
Notes detail record 1 field 1 Notes detail record 1 field2 ....
1111 987 Note Header Description 2007-07-15
Notes detail record 2 field 1 Notes detail record 2 field 2

Desired results:
NoteID CustomerID Desc1 Date
CombinedNotes
1111 987 Note Header Description 2007-07-15
Notes detail record 1 field 1 +

Notes detail record 1 field2 +

Notes detail record 2 field 1 +

Notes detail record 2 field 2 +

through unlimited number of records up to 5
fields each

The NoteID field is the unique number. 1 record per NoteID in NoteHeader,
NoteDetail can have unlimited number of same NoteID (usually not more than
10)rdraider (rdraider@.sbcglobal.net) writes:

Quote:

Originally Posted by

Using SQL 2000, how can you combine multiple records into 1?
The source data is varchar(255), the destination will be text. I need
help with the select statement.

SQL Server MVP Anith Sen as a couple of methods on
http://www.projectdmx.com/tsql/rowconcatenate.aspx.

--
Erland Sommarskog, SQL Server MVP, esquel@.sommarskog.se
Books Online for SQL Server 2005 at
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/pr...oads/books.mspx
Books Online for SQL Server 2000 at
http://www.microsoft.com/sql/prodin...ions/books.mspx|||rdraider (rdraider@.sbcglobal.net) writes:

Quote:

Originally Posted by

Thanks for the info. My problem is the resulting data will be too large
for varchar(8000). All these examples seem to use varchar(8000)
I need to convert to a text datatype. I can concat multiple varchar fields
from 1 record into text but the problem is how the source data is
structured.
The source data is from an app called 'Onyx' running SQL 6.5 (I'm naming
names !!). I upgraded the SQL 6.5 to SQL 2000. I don't hav SQL 2005.

I think you have two options:

1) Get SQL 2005.
2) Do it client-side.

I think you can do it on SQL 2000, but then you would have to run
a cursor, and use WRITETEXT and UPDATETEXT and it would be very very
painful. Please don't ask me to write the code for you, but if you
have problems with using WRITETEXT and UPDATETEXT, I can try to assist.

Quote:

Originally Posted by

I assume it was designed this way because SQL 6.5 largest data type was
varchar(255) ?

Yes, that is correct.

--
Erland Sommarskog, SQL Server MVP, esquel@.sommarskog.se
Books Online for SQL Server 2005 at
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/pr...oads/books.mspx
Books Online for SQL Server 2000 at
http://www.microsoft.com/sql/prodin...ions/books.mspxsqlsql