arrays in tsql?

Hi;

I have been writing a lot of short tsql scripts to fix a lot of tiny
database issues.

I was wondering if a could make an array of strings in tsql that I
could process in a loop, something like

array arrayListOfTablesToProcess = { "orders", "phone",
"complaints"}

for( int i = 0; i < arrayListOfTablesToProcess.length; i++ )
delete from arrayListOfTablesToProcess[i]

Can you do something like this in tsql?

I should probably stop asking all of these questions.

Is there a good book on TSQL alone ( I'm not interested in wizards,
just scripting )...that is short?

SteveThere are no arrays in TSQL. You are thinking in terms of a procedural
solution rather than a set-based solution. In general, you should be able to
use a table and set-based, SELECT/UPDATE/DELETE statements to process
"lists" of data. If you define your problem more specifically someone here
may be able to help with the set-based solution.

--
David Portas
----
Please reply only to the newsgroup
--|||Hi

In addition to David's post check out:

http://www.algonet.se/~sommar/arrays-in-sql.html

John

"Steve" <stevesusenet@.yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:6f8cb8c9.0310040337.52427942@.posting.google.c om...
> Hi;
> I have been writing a lot of short tsql scripts to fix a lot of tiny
> database issues.
> I was wondering if a could make an array of strings in tsql that I
> could process in a loop, something like
>
> array arrayListOfTablesToProcess = { "orders", "phone",
> "complaints"}
> for( int i = 0; i < arrayListOfTablesToProcess.length; i++ )
> delete from arrayListOfTablesToProcess[i]
>
>
> Can you do something like this in tsql?
> I should probably stop asking all of these questions.
> Is there a good book on TSQL alone ( I'm not interested in wizards,
> just scripting )...that is short?
> Steve