How would I return multiple values (say, a number and a string) from a user-defined function in SQL Server inside a query?
e.g select col1, dbo.function1(col2) from table
and the result to be
Col1 | Col2 | Col3
-----+-------------------+---------------------
x | Num from function | String from function
I don't want to call the function 2 times because i use some complex code and i don't want to execute it twice. Just to take the final 2 results in the Return
Extract from - http://www.sqlteam.com/article/returning-complex-data-from-user-defined-functions-with-cross-apply
Returning multiple values from a UDF can be done fairly easily in SQL Server, but we must return those values as a virtual table
--Sample Table
CREATE TABLE emails
(
ID INT PRIMARY KEY,
EmailAddress VARCHAR(100)
)
GO
--Dummy Data
INSERT INTO emails
SELECT 1,'[email protected]' UNION ALL
SELECT 2,'[email protected]' UNION ALL
SELECT 3,'[email protected]'
--UDF Creation
CREATE FUNCTION EmailParse (@email VARCHAR(1000))
RETURNS @t TABLE (UserName VARCHAR(20), Domain VARCHAR(20))
AS
BEGIN
DECLARE @i INT
SELECT @i = charindex('@', @email,1);
IF (@i > 1)
INSERT INTO @t VALUES (LEFT(@email,@i-1), SUBSTRING(@email,@i+1,20))
ELSE
INSERT INTO @t VALUES (NULL,NULL)
RETURN
END
--UDF Usage
SELECT
emails.ID, s.Username, s.Domain
FROM
emails
CROSS APPLY
EmailParse(emails.EmailAddress) s
I would probably create a table UDF. Something along the lines of this:
CREATE FUNCTION [owner].[function_name]
(
@parm1 <datatpe> = <default>
)
RETURNS TABLE
AS
RETURN
(
SELECT <column1, column2, ...>
FROM <table, view, etc.>
WHERE <some condition applies> -- optional clauses
)
more info here.
It might seem like kind of a waste if you are only returning one row, but I think your alternatives(xml, parsing values from string on the fly) would make things much harder .
RETURN (SELECT @Var1, @Var2)?You can't create a function that returns two values. What's the problem when you call the function twice?
i have found an article in TechNet which explains how to create a Table-Valued User-Defined Functions.
