Can I loop through a table variable in T-SQL?

Question

Is there anyway to loop through a table variable in T-SQL?

DECLARE @table1 TABLE ( col1 int )  
INSERT into @table1 SELECT col1 FROM table2

I use cursors as well, but cursors seem less flexible than table variables.

DECLARE cursor1 CURSOR  
    FOR SELECT col1 FROM table2  
OPEN cursor1  
FETCH NEXT FROM cursor1

I would like to be able to use a table variable in the same manner as a cursor. That way I could execute some query on the table variable in one part of the procedure, and then later execute some code for each row in the table variable.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

My two cents.. From KM.'s answer, if you want to drop one variable, you can do a countdown on @RowsToProcess instead of counting up.

DECLARE @RowsToProcess  int;

DECLARE @table1 TABLE (RowID int not null primary key identity(1,1), col1 int )  
INSERT into @table1 (col1) SELECT col1 FROM table2
SET @RowsToProcess = @@ROWCOUNT 

WHILE @RowsToProcess > 0 -- Countdown
BEGIN
    SELECT *
        FROM @table1
        WHERE RowID=@RowsToProcess

    --do your thing here--

    SET @RowsToProcess = @RowsToProcess - 1; -- Countdown
END

Answer 2

I didn't know about the WHILE structure.

The WHILE structure with a table variable, however, looks similar to using a CURSOR, in that you still have to SELECT the row into a variable based on the row IDENTITY, which is effectively a FETCH.

Is there any difference between using WHERE and something like the following?

DECLARE @table1 TABLE ( col1 int )  
INSERT into @table1 SELECT col1 FROM table2

DECLARE cursor1 CURSOR  
    FOR @table1
OPEN cursor1  
FETCH NEXT FROM cursor1

I don't know if that's even possible. I suppose you might have to do this:

DECLARE cursor1 CURSOR  
    FOR SELECT col1 FROM @table1
OPEN cursor1  
FETCH NEXT FROM cursor1

Thanks for you help!

Answer 3

Following Stored Procedure loop through the Table Variable and Prints it in Ascending ORDER. This example is using WHILE LOOP.

CREATE PROCEDURE PrintSequenceSeries 
    -- Add the parameters for the stored procedure here
    @ComaSeperatedSequenceSeries nVarchar(MAX)  
AS
BEGIN
    -- SET NOCOUNT ON added to prevent extra result sets from
    -- interfering with SELECT statements.
    SET NOCOUNT ON;

    DECLARE @SERIES_COUNT AS INTEGER
    SELECT @SERIES_COUNT = COUNT(*) FROM PARSE_COMMA_DELIMITED_INTEGER(@ComaSeperatedSequenceSeries, ',')  --- ORDER BY ITEM DESC

    DECLARE @CURR_COUNT AS INTEGER
    SET @CURR_COUNT = 1

    DECLARE @SQL AS NVARCHAR(MAX)

    WHILE @CURR_COUNT <= @SERIES_COUNT
    BEGIN
        SET @SQL = 'SELECT TOP 1 T.* FROM ' + 
            '(SELECT TOP ' + CONVERT(VARCHAR(20), @CURR_COUNT) + ' * FROM PARSE_COMMA_DELIMITED_INTEGER( ''' + @ComaSeperatedSequenceSeries + ''' , '','') ORDER BY ITEM ASC) AS T ' +
            'ORDER BY T.ITEM DESC '
        PRINT @SQL 
        EXEC SP_EXECUTESQL @SQL 
        SET @CURR_COUNT = @CURR_COUNT + 1
    END;

Following Statement Executes the Stored Procedure:

EXEC  PrintSequenceSeries '11,2,33,14,5,60,17,98,9,10'

The result displayed in SQL Query window is shown below:

The function PARSE_COMMA_DELIMITED_INTEGER() that returns TABLE variable is as shown below :

CREATE FUNCTION [dbo].[parse_comma_delimited_integer]
        (
            @LIST       VARCHAR(8000), 
            @DELIMITER  VARCHAR(10) = ',
            '
        )

        -- TABLE VARIABLE THAT WILL CONTAIN VALUES
        RETURNS @TABLEVALUES TABLE 
        (
            ITEM INT
        )
        AS
        BEGIN 
            DECLARE @ITEM VARCHAR(255)

            /* LOOP OVER THE COMMADELIMITED LIST */
            WHILE (DATALENGTH(@LIST) > 0)
                BEGIN 
                    IF CHARINDEX(@DELIMITER,@LIST) > 0
                        BEGIN
                            SELECT @ITEM = SUBSTRING(@LIST,1,(CHARINDEX(@DELIMITER, @LIST)-1))
                            SELECT @LIST =  SUBSTRING(@LIST,(CHARINDEX(@DELIMITER, @LIST) +
                            DATALENGTH(@DELIMITER)),DATALENGTH(@LIST))
                        END
                    ELSE
                        BEGIN
                            SELECT @ITEM = @LIST
                            SELECT @LIST = NULL
                        END

                    -- INSERT EACH ITEM INTO TEMP TABLE
                    INSERT @TABLEVALUES 
                    (
                        ITEM
                    )
                    SELECT ITEM = CONVERT(INT, @ITEM) 
                END
        RETURN
        END

Answer 4

Add an identity to your table variable, and do an easy loop from 1 to the @@ROWCOUNT of the INSERT-SELECT.

Try this:

DECLARE @RowsToProcess  int
DECLARE @CurrentRow     int
DECLARE @SelectCol1     int

DECLARE @table1 TABLE (RowID int not null primary key identity(1,1), col1 int )  
INSERT into @table1 (col1) SELECT col1 FROM table2
SET @RowsToProcess=@@ROWCOUNT

SET @CurrentRow=0
WHILE @CurrentRow<@RowsToProcess
BEGIN
    SET @CurrentRow=@CurrentRow+1
    SELECT 
        @SelectCol1=col1
        FROM @table1
        WHERE RowID=@CurrentRow

    --do your thing here--

END