SQL SERVER – Storing Variable Values in Temporary Array or Temporary List

Let us say here are the values: a, 10, 20, c, 30, d. Now the requirement is to store them in a array or list. It is very easy to do the same in C# or C. However, there is no quick way to do the same in SQL Server. Every single time when I get such requirement, I create a table variable and store the values in the table variables. Here is the example: For SQL Server 2012:

DECLARE @ListofIDs TABLE(IDs VARCHAR(100));
INSERT INTO @ListofIDs
VALUES('a'),('10'),('20'),('c'),('30'),('d');
SELECT IDs FROM @ListofIDs;
GO

When executed above script it will give following resultset. Above script will work in SQL Server 2012 only for SQL Server 2008 and earlier version run following code.

DECLARE @ListofIDs TABLE(IDs VARCHAR(100), ID INT IDENTITY(1,1));
INSERT INTO @ListofIDs
SELECT 'a'
UNION ALL
SELECT '10'
UNION ALL
SELECT '20'
UNION ALL
SELECT 'c'
UNION ALL
SELECT '30'
UNION ALL
SELECT 'd';
SELECT IDs FROM @ListofIDs;
GO

Now in this case, I have to convert numbers to varchars because I have to store mix datatypes in a single column. Additionally, this quick solution does not give any features of arrays (like inserting values in between as well accessing values using array index).