TSQL, change value on a comma delimited column - sql-server

Question

I have a column called empl_type_multi which is just a comma delimited column, each value is a link to another table called custom captions.
For instance, i might have the following as a value in empl_type_multi:
123, RHN, 458
Then in the custom_captions table these would be individual values:
123 = Dog
RHN = Cat
458 = Rabbit
All of these fields are NTEXT.
What i am trying to do is convert the empl_type_multi column and chance it to the respective names in the custom_captions table, so in the example above:
123, RHN, 458
Would become
Dog, Cat, Rabbit
Any help on this would be much appreciated.
----- EDIT ------------------------------------------------------------------
Ok so ive managed to convert the values to the corresponding caption and put it all into a temporary table, the following is the output from a CTE query on the table:
ID1 ID2 fName lName Caption_name Row_Number
10007 22841 fname1 lname1 DENTAL ASSISTANT 1
10007 22841 fname1 lname1 2
10007 22841 fname1 lname1 3
10008 23079 fname2 lname2 OPS WARD 1
10008 23079 fname2 lname2 DENTAL 2
10008 23079 fname2 lname2 3
How can i update this so that anything under caption name is added to the caption name of Row_Number 1 separated by a comma?
If i can do that all i need to do is delete all records where Row_Number != 1.
------ EDIT --------------------------------------------------
The solution to the first edit was:
WITH CTE AS
(
SELECT
p.ID1
, p.ID2
, p.fname
, p.lname
, p.caption_name--
, ROW_NUMBER() OVER (PARTITION BY p.id1ORDER BY caption_name DESC) AS RN
FROM tmp_cs p
)
UPDATE tblPerson SET empType = empType + ', ' + c.Data
FROM CTE c WHERE [DB1].dbo.tblPerson.personID = c.personID AND RN = 2
And then i just incremented RN = 2 until i got 0 rows affected.
This was after i ran:
DELETE FROM CTE WHERE RN != 1 AND Caption_name = ''

Answer 1

select ID1, ID2, fname, lname, left(captions, len(captions) - 1) as captions
from (
select distinct ID1, ID2, cast(fname as nvarchar) as fname, cast(lname as nvarchar) as lname, (
select cast(t1.caption_name as nvarchar) + ','
from #temp as t1
where t1.ID1 = t2.ID1
and t1.ID2 = t2.ID2
and cast(caption_name as nvarchar) != ''
order by t1.[row_number]
for xml path ('')) captions
from #temp as t2
) yay_concatenated_rows
This will give you what you want. You'll see casting from ntext to varchar. This is necessary for comparison because many logical ops can't be performed on ntext. It can be implicitly cast back the other way so no worries there. Note that when casting I did not specify length; this will default to 30, so adjust as varchar(length) as needed to avoid truncation. I also assumed that both ID1 and ID2 form a composite key (it appears this is so). Adjust the join as you need for the relationship.

Answer 2

you have just shared your part of problem,not exact problem.
try this,
DECLARE #T TABLE(ID1 VARCHAR(50),ID2 VARCHAR(50),fName VARCHAR(50),LName VARCHAR(50),Caption_name VARCHAR(50),Row_Number INT)
INSERT INTO #T VALUES
(10007,22841,'fname1','lname1','DENTAL ASSISTANT', 1)
,(10007,22841,'fname1','lname1', NULL, 2)
,(10007,22841,'fname1','lname1', NULL, 3)
,(10008,23079,'fname2','lname2','OPS WARD', 1)
,(10008,23079,'fname2','lname2','DENTAL', 2)
,(10008,23079,'fname2','lname2', NULL, 3)
SELECT *
,STUFF((SELECT ','+Caption_name
FROM #T T1 WHERE T.ID1=T1.ID1 FOR XML PATH('')
),1,1,'')
FROM #T T

Answer 3

You can construct the caption_name string easily by looping through while loop
declare #i int = 2,#Caption_name varchar(100)= (select series from
#temp where Row_Number= 1)
while #i <= (select count(*) from #temp)
begin
select #Caption_name = #Caption_name + Caption_name from #temp where Row_Number = #i)
set #i = #i+1
end
update #temp set Caption_name = #Caption_name where Row_Number = 1
and use case statement to remove null values
(select case when isnull(Caption_name ,'') = '' then
'' else ',' + Caption_name end