sql curser only returns one value

Question

I have three tables, where one of the tables is joined by an employeeId. A normal sql statement makes the join and returns three values in one column - however, I need to display these values as a single String, ie instead of

Harry Tuttle  
Sam Lowrey  
Jack Lint

I need to return as

Harry Tuttle, Sam Lowrey, Jack Lint

I've created a stored proc and am using a cursor (my first attempt), which is included below. THe only issue is that it execytes and returns

Sam Lowrey,

on every execute. The proc looks like

create procedure sp_ac_temp (@assignmment_id int)
as

/* declare local variables used for fetch */  
declare @advisor_name varchar(100)  
/* cursor to get each advisor name */  
declare advisor_fetch cursor for  
        select e.first_name + ' ' + e.last_name + ', '  
          from assign a  
    inner join advisor fa on a.assignment_id = fa.assignment_id  
    inner join employee e on fa.employee_id = e.employee_id  
  where a.assignment_id = @assignmment_id  

open advisor_fetch   
fetch advisor_fetch  
        into @advisor_name   
if (@@sqlstatus = 2)  
begin  
    close advisor_fetch  
    return  
end  


/* if cursor result set is not empty, process each row of information */  
while (@@sqlstatus = 0) 
begin  
    --if (@advisor_name != NULL)  
    begin  
        select @advisor_name = @advisor_name + '! '  

    end   
    fetch advisor_fetch into @advisor_name  

    select @advisor_name  

end  

I can alter the script and generate output on different SquirrleSQL panes eg if I alter the while loop segment to:

while (@@sqlstatus = 0)
begin
    --if (@advisor_name != NULL)
    begin
        select @advisor_name = @advisor_name + '! '
        select @advisor_name --this here
    end 
    fetch advisor_fetch into @advisor_name

    select @advisor_name

end

this shows the cursor is looping 6 times (I get 6 IDE frames generated, each containing one name but they vary:

Harry Tuttle, !
Sam Lowrey,  
Sam Lowrey, ! 
Jack Lint, 
Jack Lint, 
Jack Lint, ! 

)).

I'm using Sybase. Any ideas?

Answer 1

You keep overwriting your @advisor_name variable. You need to accumulate the answer into a different variable, here @combined_name.

I don't know sybase, but I also assume you need to close/deallocate the cursor after using it.

create procedure sp_ac_temp (@assignmment_id int) as
declare @advisor_name varchar(100)  
declare @combined_name varchar(1000) -- variable to accumulate answer

select @combined_name = ''

declare advisor_fetch cursor for  
    select 
        e.first_name + ' ' + e.last_name + ', '  
    from 
        assign a inner join 
        advisor fa on a.assignment_id = fa.assignment_id inner join 
        employee e on fa.employee_id = e.employee_id  
    where
        a.assignment_id = @assignmment_id  

open advisor_fetch   
fetch advisor_fetch into @advisor_name   
if (@@sqlstatus = 2)  
begin  
    close advisor_fetch  
    return  
end  

/* if cursor result set is not empty, process each row of information */  
while (@@sqlstatus = 0) 
begin  
    select @combined_name = @combined_name + @advisor_name --append next advisor
    fetch advisor_fetch into @advisor_name  
end  
select @combined_name