how to combine text data rows into single row?

Hi!!!!

Need some quick help on SQL.....DTS packages.

I’ve loaded data from text files into a table which is in the following format.....

Seq_No

Row_No

Data

1

1

ABC

2

2

DEF

3

3

GHI

4

4

JKL

5

1

MNO

6

2

PQR

7

3

STU

8

4

VWX

Every four lines correspond to one single logical record. So, all the data in every 4 rows have to be combined into one big string which’ll then be loaded into one col of another temporary table .....structure below.....

Record_No

Data

1

ABCDEFGHIJKL

2

MNOPQRSTUVWX

I’m looking for a way to achieve this WITHOUT using Cursors (as it’ll slow down performance)......

Any suggestions will be highly appreciated.

what data type is the Data column?|||

One way is to use the CLR Aggregate function for string concatenation shown in the BOL

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms254508.aspx

and then run a query like this

select ((Seq_No-1) / 4)+1 as Record_No, dbo.Concatenate(Data) as Data
into dest
from source
group by ((Seq_No-1) / 4)+1
go

select * from dest
go

|||

hi pramy,

please refer to this post

http://forums.microsoft.com/MSDN/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=586833&SiteID=1

regards

|||

hi Derek,

thanks for ur reply. the data type is of varchar.

|||

pramy, you still need help on this issue? if not please mark an answer.

thanks,

derek

|||

hi all,

thanks for ur response.

Derek, i've got the solution for my problem and the query is as given below.

select 'data' = convert(varchar(100),(a.data)+''+(b.data)+''+(c.data)+''+(d.data))

from test_data a,test_data b,test_data c,test_data d

where ((b.seqno=a.seqno+1 and b.rowno=a.rowno+1)and(c.seqno=b.seqno+1 and c.rowno=b.rowno+1)and(d.seqno=c.seqno+1 and d.rowno=c.rowno+1))