SQLAuthority News – Featured on Channel 9

This blog was featured on Channel 9 MSDN over here : TWC9: Scott Hanselman, Jon Galloway, Bing, parallel unit tests, more. I was very proud that this blog was discussed for more than 5 mins (from min 18 to min 23) on my favorite online show. Scott Hanselman, Jon Galloway along with Dan Fernandez make this show very live and very very entertaining.

The article which was featured in the show is SQL SERVER – Comma Separated Values (CSV) from Table Column.

Here are few screenshots from the show where this blog was featured on Channel 9.

The Featured Article and the Modern Way

This was a big moment for me. It was my favorite online show, and hearing my own blog discussed on it felt unreal. It also reminded me that a small, practical script can travel far when it solves a common problem. You do not need a big idea to help people. You need a clear answer to a question many of them are asking.

The featured article showed how to build a comma separated list from a table column. At that time we needed a small trick to do it. Starting with SQL Server 2017, there is a much simpler way with the STRING_AGG function:

SELECT STRING_AGG(name, ', ') AS DatabaseList
FROM sys.databases;

If you are on SQL Server 2017 or later, use STRING_AGG. It is shorter, easier to read and clearly shows what the query is trying to do. The old tricks still work, but the next person who reads your code will thank you for the simple version. I still smile when I think about the day this blog was featured on Channel 9, and I am grateful to every reader who shared that article.

Published by Pinal Dave on SQLAuthority. More of my work at pinaldave.com.