How to write a foreach in SQL Server?

Question

I am trying to achieve something along the lines of a for-each, where I would like to take the Ids of a returned select statement and use each of them.

DECLAR         


        

Answer 1

I would say everything probably works except that the column idx doesn't actually exist in the table you're selecting from. Maybe you meant to select from @Practitioner:

WHILE (@i <= (SELECT MAX(idx) FROM @Practitioner))

because that's defined in the code above like that:

DECLARE @Practitioner TABLE (
    idx smallint Primary Key IDENTITY(1,1)
    , PractitionerId int
)

Answer 2

This generally (almost always) performs better than a cursor and is simpler:

    DECLARE @PractitionerList TABLE(PracticionerID INT)
    DECLARE @PractitionerID INT

    INSERT @PractitionerList(PracticionerID)
    SELECT PracticionerID
    FROM Practitioner

    WHILE(1 = 1)
    BEGIN

        SET @PracticionerID = NULL
        SELECT TOP(1) @PracticionerID = PracticionerID
        FROM @PractitionerList

        IF @PracticionerID IS NULL
            BREAK

        PRINT 'DO STUFF'

        DELETE TOP(1) FROM @PractitionerList

    END

Answer 3

I made a procedure that execute a FOREACH with CURSOR for any table.

Example of use:

CREATE TABLE #A (I INT, J INT)
INSERT INTO #A VALUES (1, 2), (2, 3)
EXEC PRC_FOREACH
    #A --Table we want to do the FOREACH
    , 'SELECT @I, @J' --The execute command, each column becomes a variable in the same type, so DON'T USE SPACES IN NAMES
   --The third variable is the database, it's optional because a table in TEMPB or the DB of the proc will be discovered in code

The result is 2 selects for each row. The syntax of UPDATE and break the FOREACH are written in the hints.

This is the proc code:

CREATE PROC [dbo].[PRC_FOREACH] (@TBL VARCHAR(100) = NULL, @EXECUTE NVARCHAR(MAX)=NULL, @DB VARCHAR(100) = NULL) AS BEGIN

    --LOOP BETWEEN EACH TABLE LINE            

IF @TBL + @EXECUTE IS NULL BEGIN
    PRINT '@TBL: A TABLE TO MAKE OUT EACH LINE'
    PRINT '@EXECUTE: COMMAND TO BE PERFORMED ON EACH FOREACH TRANSACTION'
    PRINT '@DB: BANK WHERE THIS TABLE IS (IF NOT INFORMED IT WILL BE DB_NAME () OR TEMPDB)' + CHAR(13)
    PRINT 'ROW COLUMNS WILL VARIABLE WITH THE SAME NAME (COL_A = @COL_A)'
    PRINT 'THEREFORE THE COLUMNS CANT CONTAIN SPACES!' + CHAR(13)
    PRINT 'SYNTAX UPDATE:

UPDATE TABLE
SET COL = NEW_VALUE
WHERE CURRENT OF MY_CURSOR

CLOSE CURSOR (BEFORE ALL LINES):

IF 1 = 1 GOTO FIM_CURSOR'
    RETURN
END
SET @DB = ISNULL(@DB, CASE WHEN LEFT(@TBL, 1) = '#' THEN 'TEMPDB' ELSE DB_NAME() END)

    --Identifies the columns for the variables (DECLARE and INTO (Next cursor line))

DECLARE @Q NVARCHAR(MAX)
SET @Q = '
WITH X AS (
    SELECT
        A = '', @'' + NAME
        , B = '' '' + type_name(system_type_id)
        , C = CASE
            WHEN type_name(system_type_id) IN (''VARCHAR'', ''CHAR'', ''NCHAR'', ''NVARCHAR'') THEN ''('' + REPLACE(CONVERT(VARCHAR(10), max_length), ''-1'', ''MAX'') + '')''
            WHEN type_name(system_type_id) IN (''DECIMAL'', ''NUMERIC'') THEN ''('' + CONVERT(VARCHAR(10), precision) + '', '' + CONVERT(VARCHAR(10), scale) + '')''
            ELSE ''''
        END
    FROM [' + @DB + '].SYS.COLUMNS C WITH(NOLOCK)
    WHERE OBJECT_ID = OBJECT_ID(''[' + @DB + '].DBO.[' + @TBL + ']'')
    )
SELECT
    @DECLARE = STUFF((SELECT A + B + C FROM X FOR XML PATH('''')), 1, 1, '''')
    , @INTO = ''--Read the next line
FETCH NEXT FROM MY_CURSOR INTO '' + STUFF((SELECT A + '''' FROM X FOR XML PATH('''')), 1, 1, '''')'

DECLARE @DECLARE NVARCHAR(MAX), @INTO NVARCHAR(MAX)
EXEC SP_EXECUTESQL @Q, N'@DECLARE NVARCHAR(MAX) OUTPUT, @INTO NVARCHAR(MAX) OUTPUT', @DECLARE OUTPUT, @INTO OUTPUT

    --PREPARE TO QUERY

SELECT
    @Q = '
DECLARE ' + @DECLARE + '
-- Cursor to scroll through object names
DECLARE MY_CURSOR CURSOR FOR
    SELECT *
    FROM [' + @DB + '].DBO.[' + @TBL + ']

-- Opening Cursor for Reading
OPEN MY_CURSOR
' + @INTO + '

-- Traversing Cursor Lines (While There)
WHILE @@FETCH_STATUS = 0
BEGIN
    ' + @EXECUTE + '
    -- Reading the next line
    ' + @INTO + '
END
FIM_CURSOR:
-- Closing Cursor for Reading
CLOSE MY_CURSOR

DEALLOCATE MY_CURSOR'

EXEC SP_EXECUTESQL @Q --MAGIA
END

Answer 4

Although cursors usually considered horrible evil I believe this is a case for FAST_FORWARD cursor - the closest thing you can get to FOREACH in TSQL.

Answer 5

Suppose that the column PractitionerId is a unique, then you can use the following loop

DECLARE @PractitionerId int = 0
WHILE(1 = 1)
BEGIN
  SELECT @PractitionerId = MIN(PractitionerId)
  FROM dbo.Practitioner WHERE PractitionerId > @PractitionerId
  IF @PractitionerId IS NULL BREAK
  SELECT @PractitionerId
END

Answer 6

Here is the one of the better solutions.

DECLARE @i int
            DECLARE @curren_val int
            DECLARE @numrows int
            create table #Practitioner (idx int IDENTITY(1,1), PractitionerId int)
            INSERT INTO #Practitioner (PractitionerId) values (10),(20),(30)
            SET @i = 1
            SET @numrows = (SELECT COUNT(*) FROM #Practitioner)
            IF @numrows > 0
            WHILE (@i <= (SELECT MAX(idx) FROM #Practitioner))
            BEGIN

                SET @curren_val = (SELECT PractitionerId FROM #Practitioner WHERE idx = @i)

                --Do something with Id here
                PRINT @curren_val
                SET @i = @i + 1
            END

Here i've add some values in the table beacuse, initially it is empty.

We can access or we can do anything in the body of the loop and we can access the idx by defining it inside the table definition.

              BEGIN
                SET @curren_val = (SELECT PractitionerId FROM #Practitioner WHERE idx = @i)

                --Do something with Id here

                PRINT @curren_val
                SET @i = @i + 1
            END