Combine Multiple Rows into One Row using SQL Server

Imagine you have a column like this:

Numbers
---------
One
Two
Three
Four
Five

The output you desire is to combine all the rows and put it as one row similar to the following:

OneTwoThreeFourFive


Let us see how to do it:

-- Sample Script to create the table and insert rows
-- By SQLServerCurry.com

CREATE TABLE #Temp
(
[Numbers] varchar(40)
)
INSERT INTO #Temp VALUES('One');
INSERT INTO #Temp VALUES('Two');
INSERT INTO #Temp VALUES('Three');
INSERT INTO #Temp VALUES('Four');
INSERT INTO #Temp VALUES('Five');


-- Query to combine multiple rows into one

DECLARE @str VARCHAR(100)
SELECT @str = COALESCE(@str + '', '') + [Numbers]
FROM #Temp
Print @str

You can also achieve the same result using STUFF

SELECT DISTINCT STUFF( (SELECT '*' + Numbers from #Temp FOR XML PATH('')),1,1,'') as Numbers FROM #Temp

Update: Here's another solution if you want to combine and output multiple rows as CSV - SQL Server: Combine Multiple Rows Into One Column with CSV output

About The Author

Suprotim Agarwal, MCSD, MCAD, MCDBA, MCSE, is the founder of DotNetCurry, DNC Magazine for Developers, SQLServerCurry and DevCurry. He has also authored a couple of books 51 Recipes using jQuery with ASP.NET Controls and a new one recently at The Absolutely Awesome jQuery CookBook.

Suprotim has received the prestigous Microsoft MVP award for nine times in a row now. In a professional capacity, he is the CEO of A2Z Knowledge Visuals Pvt Ltd, a digital group that represents premium web sites and digital publications comprising of Professional web, windows, mobile and cloud developers, technical managers, and architects.

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