How to batch toggle comment/uncomment certain rows in SQL Server? - sql-server

Question

Is there a way, within SSMS or via a third-party app, to select a batch of lines to toggle their commented status?
Background: in my query, there are two "search modes" that I want to alternate between.
To do this, I need to comment lines 19, 107, 108, 112, and uncomment line 232. Then I need to do the opposite to go back to the other "mode".
Rather than scrolling through the query, is there some way to automate this process?
Example:
1 --select distinct x.name from (
2 select name, dateofbirth, favouritecolour
3 from classmates
4 where dateofbirth between '01-Mar-1990' and '17-Apr-1995'
5 --)x
6 union all
7 --select distinct x.name from (
8 select name, relationship, location
9 from family
10 where relationship = 'uncle'
11 --)x
For full detail, I could have the query like this. If I just wanted the names, I would uncomment lines 1,5,7 and 11.
My real life example is spread across hundreds of lines, and would involve commenting and uncommenting as part of the same "transition"

Answer 1

A simple way to do this is to use a variable:
--Searchmode 0 = Path A
--Searchmode 1 = Path B
DECLARE #SearchMode int = 0 --Change this to change path
IF #SearchMode = 0
BEGIN
SELECT blah
FROM tableA
END
IF #SearchMode = 1
BEGIN
SELECT blah
FROM tableB
END
You could also make it a procedure:
CREATE PROCEDURE dbo.exampleProc #SearchMode int
AS
BEGIN
IF #SearchMode = 0
BEGIN
SELECT blah
FROM tableA
END
IF #SearchMode = 1
BEGIN
SELECT blah
FROM tableB
END
END
Then just execute it and feed in the parameter value like this:
EXEC dbo.exampleProc 0
EXEC dbo.exampleProc 1
Edit:
You could also have the repeated parts of the query always run, then the extra filters only run if #SearchMode = 1. Something like:
DECLARE #SearchMode int = 0
select name, dateofbirth, favouritecolour
into #temp
from classmates
where dateofbirth between '01-Mar-1990' and '17-Apr-1995'
union all
select name, relationship, location
from family
where relationship = 'uncle'
IF #SearchMode = 0
BEGIN
SELECT *
FROM #temp
END
IF #SearchMode = 1
BEGIN
SELECT DISTINCT Name
FROM #temp
END