Define variable to use with IN operator (T-SQL)

Question

I have a Transact-SQL query that uses the IN operator. Something like this:

select * from myTable where myColumn in (1,2,3,4)

Is there a wa

Answer 1

Use a function like this:

CREATE function [dbo].[list_to_table] (@list varchar(4000))
returns @tab table (item varchar(100))
begin

if CHARINDEX(',',@list) = 0 or CHARINDEX(',',@list) is null
begin
    insert into @tab (item) values (@list);
    return;
end


declare @c_pos int;
declare @n_pos int;
declare @l_pos int;

set @c_pos = 0;
set @n_pos = CHARINDEX(',',@list,@c_pos);

while @n_pos > 0
begin
    insert into @tab (item) values (SUBSTRING(@list,@c_pos+1,@n_pos - @c_pos-1));
    set @c_pos = @n_pos;
    set @l_pos = @n_pos;
    set @n_pos = CHARINDEX(',',@list,@c_pos+1);
end;

insert into @tab (item) values (SUBSTRING(@list,@l_pos+1,4000));

return;
end;

Instead of using like, you make an inner join with the table returned by the function:

select * from table_1 where id in ('a','b','c')

becomes

select * from table_1 a inner join [dbo].[list_to_table] ('a,b,c') b on (a.id = b.item)

In an unindexed 1M record table the second version took about half the time...

cheers