Pass Array Parameter in SqlCommand

I wanted to expand on the answer that Brian contributed to make this easily usable in other places.

/// <summary>
/// This will add an array of parameters to a SqlCommand. This is used for an IN statement.
/// Use the returned value for the IN part of your SQL call. (i.e. SELECT * FROM table WHERE field IN (returnValue))
/// </summary>
/// <param name="sqlCommand">The SqlCommand object to add parameters to.</param>
/// <param name="array">The array of strings that need to be added as parameters.</param>
/// <param name="paramName">What the parameter should be named.</param>
protected string AddArrayParameters(SqlCommand sqlCommand, string[] array, string paramName)
{
    /* An array cannot be simply added as a parameter to a SqlCommand so we need to loop through things and add it manually. 
     * Each item in the array will end up being it's own SqlParameter so the return value for this must be used as part of the
     * IN statement in the CommandText.
     */
    var parameters = new string[array.Length];
    for (int i = 0; i < array.Length; i++)
    {
        parameters[i] = string.Format("@{0}{1}", paramName, i);
        sqlCommand.Parameters.AddWithValue(parameters[i], array[i]);
    }

    return string.Join(", ", parameters);
}

You can use this new function as follows:

SqlCommand cmd = new SqlCommand();

string ageParameters = AddArrayParameters(cmd, agesArray, "Age");
sql = string.Format("SELECT * FROM TableA WHERE Age IN ({0})", ageParameters);

cmd.CommandText = sql;

public static class Extensions
{
    public static void AddArrayParameters<T>(this SqlCommand cmd, string name, IEnumerable<T> values) 
    { 
        name = name.StartsWith("@") ? name : "@" + name;
        var names = string.Join(", ", values.Select((value, i) => { 
            var paramName = name + i; 
            cmd.Parameters.AddWithValue(paramName, value); 
            return paramName; 
        })); 
        cmd.CommandText = cmd.CommandText.Replace(name, names); 
    }
}

You can then use this extension method as follows:

var ageList = new List<int> { 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11 };
var cmd = new SqlCommand();
cmd.CommandText = "SELECT * FROM MyTable WHERE Age IN (@Age)";    
cmd.AddArrayParameters("Age", ageList);

Make sure you set the CommandText before calling AddArrayParameters.

Also make sure your parameter name won't partially match anything else in your statement (i.e. @AgeOfChild)

If you can use a tool like "dapper", this can be simply:

int[] ages = { 20, 21, 22 }; // could be any common list-like type
var rows = connection.Query<YourType>("SELECT * from TableA WHERE Age IN @ages",
          new { ages }).ToList();

Dapper will handle unwrapping this to individual parameters for you.

If you are using MS SQL Server 2008 and above you can use table-valued parameters like described here http://www.sommarskog.se/arrays-in-sql-2008.html.

1. Create a table type for each parameter type you will be using

The following command creates a table type for integers:

create type int32_id_list as table (id int not null primary key)

2. Implement helper methods

public static SqlCommand AddParameter<T>(this SqlCommand command, string name, IEnumerable<T> ids)
{
  var parameter = command.CreateParameter();      

  parameter.ParameterName = name;
  parameter.TypeName = typeof(T).Name.ToLowerInvariant() + "_id_list";
  parameter.SqlDbType = SqlDbType.Structured;
  parameter.Direction = ParameterDirection.Input;

  parameter.Value = CreateIdList(ids);

  command.Parameters.Add(parameter);
  return command;
}

private static DataTable CreateIdList<T>(IEnumerable<T> ids)
{
  var table = new DataTable();
  table.Columns.Add("id", typeof (T));

  foreach (var id in ids)
  {
    table.Rows.Add(id);
  }

  return table;
}

3. Use it like this

cmd.CommandText = "select * from TableA where Age in (select id from @age)"; 
cmd.AddParameter("@age", new [] {1,2,3,4,5});

Since there is a method on

SqlCommand.Parameters.AddWithValue(parameterName, value)

it might be more convenient to create a method accepting a parameter (name) to replace and a list of values. It is not on the Parameters level (like AddWithValue) but on command itself so it's better to call it AddParametersWithValues and not just AddWithValues:

query:

SELECT * from TableA WHERE Age IN (@age)

usage:

sqlCommand.AddParametersWithValues("@age", 1, 2, 3);

the extension method:

public static class SqlCommandExtensions
{
    public static void AddParametersWithValues<T>(this SqlCommand cmd,  string parameterName, params T[] values)
    {
        var parameterNames = new List<string>();
        for(int i = 0; i < values.Count(); i++)
        {
            var paramName = @"@param" + i;
            cmd.Parameters.AddWithValue(paramName, values.ElementAt(i));
            parameterNames.Add(paramName);
        }

        cmd.CommandText = cmd.CommandText.Replace(parameterName, string.Join(",", parameterNames));
    }
}

I want to propose another way, how to solve limitation with IN operator.

For example we have following query

select *
from Users U
WHERE U.ID in (@ids)

We want to pass several IDs to filter users. Unfortunately it is not possible to do with C# in easy way. But I have fount workaround for this by using "string_split" function. We need to rewrite a bit our query to following.

declare @ids nvarchar(max) = '1,2,3'

SELECT *
FROM Users as U
CROSS APPLY string_split(@ids, ',') as UIDS
WHERE U.ID = UIDS.value

Now we can easily pass one parameter enumeration of values separated by comma.

Passing an array of items as a collapsed parameter to the WHERE..IN clause will fail since query will take form of WHERE Age IN ("11, 13, 14, 16").

But you can pass your parameter as an array serialized to XML or JSON:

Using nodes() method:

StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();

foreach (ListItem item in ddlAge.Items)
  if (item.Selected)
    sb.Append("<age>" + item.Text + "</age>"); // actually it's xml-ish

sqlComm.CommandText = @"SELECT * from TableA WHERE Age IN (
    SELECT Tab.col.value('.', 'int') as Age from @Ages.nodes('/age') as Tab(col))";
sqlComm.Parameters.Add("@Ages", SqlDbType.NVarChar);
sqlComm.Parameters["@Ages"].Value = sb.ToString();

Using OPENXML method:

using System.Xml.Linq;
...
XElement xml = new XElement("Ages");

foreach (ListItem item in ddlAge.Items)
  if (item.Selected)
    xml.Add(new XElement("age", item.Text);

sqlComm.CommandText = @"DECLARE @idoc int;
    EXEC sp_xml_preparedocument @idoc OUTPUT, @Ages;
    SELECT * from TableA WHERE Age IN (
    SELECT Age from OPENXML(@idoc, '/Ages/age') with (Age int 'text()')
    EXEC sp_xml_removedocument @idoc";
sqlComm.Parameters.Add("@Ages", SqlDbType.Xml);
sqlComm.Parameters["@Ages"].Value = xml.ToString();

That's a bit more on the SQL side and you need a proper XML (with root).

Using OPENJSON method (SQL Server 2016+):

using Newtonsoft.Json;
...
List<string> ages = new List<string>();

foreach (ListItem item in ddlAge.Items)
  if (item.Selected)
    ages.Add(item.Text);

sqlComm.CommandText = @"SELECT * from TableA WHERE Age IN (
    select value from OPENJSON(@Ages))";
sqlComm.Parameters.Add("@Ages", SqlDbType.NVarChar);
sqlComm.Parameters["@Ages"].Value = JsonConvert.SerializeObject(ages);

Note that for the last method you also need to have Compatibility Level at 130+.

Just changing DbType might be enough:

string sqlCommand = "SELECT * from TableA WHERE Age IN (@Age)";
SqlConnection sqlCon = new SqlConnection(connectString);
SqlCommand sqlComm = new SqlCommand
{
    Connection = sqlCon,
    CommandType = CommandType.Text,
    CommandText = sqlCommand,
    CommandTimeout = 300
};

var itens = string.Join(',', ddlAge.Items);
sqlComm.Parameters.Add(
    new SqlParameter("@Age", itens)
    {
        DbType = DbType.String
    });

Use .AddWithValue(), So:

sqlComm.Parameters.AddWithValue("@Age", sb.ToString().TrimEnd(','));

Alternatively, you could use this:

sqlComm.Parameters.Add(
    new SqlParameter("@Age", sb.ToString().TrimEnd(',')) { SqlDbType = SqlDbType. NVarChar }
    );

Your total code sample will look at follows then:

string sqlCommand = "SELECT * from TableA WHERE Age IN (@Age)";
SqlConnection sqlCon = new SqlConnection(connectString);
SqlCommand sqlComm = new SqlCommand();
sqlComm.Connection = sqlCon;
sqlComm.CommandType = System.Data.CommandType.Text;
sqlComm.CommandText = sqlCommand;
sqlComm.CommandTimeout = 300;

StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
foreach (ListItem item in ddlAge.Items)
{
     if (item.Selected)
     {
         sb.Append(item.Text + ",");
     }
}

sqlComm.Parameters.AddWithValue("@Age", sb.ToString().TrimEnd(','));

// OR

// sqlComm.Parameters.Add(new SqlParameter("@Age", sb.ToString().TrimEnd(',')) { SqlDbType = SqlDbType. NVarChar });