Difference between Oracle SQL Query vs Microsoft SQL Server 2008 or Sybase

Oracle and Microsoft SQL Server are two of the most popular database but they are very different with each other and if you are migrating SQL queries or database, tables from Oracle 11g database to Microsoft SQL Server 2008 then you are bound to face some issues. Main reason of these porting issues are features which are supported and exists in Oracle database, but not available in Microsoft SQL Server 2008 like SEQUENCE, Order by clause in subqueries, and derived tables, derived table without name etc. I am sure there are few more and it will surface based upon different database objects you are using in your tables and queries. On another hand SQL engine for SQL Server and Sybase are very much similar, at least syntactically, and if you are migrating queries from SQL Server to Sybase you can do that without much hassle, of course, there will be slight changes but not as much like Oracle.

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How to Convert Result of SELECT Command to Comma Separated String in SQL Server

Sometimes, you need the result of SQL SELECT clause as a comma separated String e.g. if you are outputting ids of white-listed products. By default, the SELECT command will print each row in one line and you get a column of names or ids. If you need a comma separated String then you probably need to use a text editor like Notepad++, Edit Plus, or a tool like Microsoft Excel to convert that column of values into a big CSV String. I often use a text editor like edit plus to replace the \n to comma (,) to create such CSV string because it support regular expression based find and replace operation. Suddenly, a thought came to my mind, why not do this in T-SQL in the SQL Server. It would not only save the time but also give you options like create a sorted list of comma separated String using order by clause. It's a nice trick and useful in many scenarios especially if you are working with data drive application.

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