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latent_ken
Starting Member

10 Posts
Posted - 08/05/2011 :  17:04:05  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
How do i write a while loop that goes through an entire table?

tkizer
Almighty SQL Goddess

USA
38200 Posts
Posted - 08/05/2011 :  17:06:21  Show Profile  Visit tkizer's Homepage  Reply with Quote
Just use a cursor for that. Details including example can be found in Books Online.

HOWEVER! Why do you need to do this? There is almost certainly a better way to handle your problem than looping through all rows in a table. Please provide some details as to why you think you need to loop through every row.

Tara Kizer
Microsoft MVP for Windows Server System - SQL Server
http://weblogs.sqlteam.com/tarad/

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robvolk
Most Valuable Yak

USA
15732 Posts
Posted - 08/05/2011 :  17:16:25  Show Profile  Visit robvolk's Homepage  Reply with Quote
Probably for this: http://www.sqlteam.com/forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=163968

You definitely don't need (or want) a cursor if you're asking what I think you're asking.
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Jason W
Starting Member

19 Posts
Posted - 08/06/2011 :  22:14:47  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
Here is how you can loop through a table, although there is probably a good chance that you can write your query without any looping at all. But here you go:
http://www.sqloptimizationsschool.com/Pages/Advanced%20Concepts/Loops%20vs.%20Cursors.aspx
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jcelko
Esteemed SQL Purist

USA
547 Posts
Posted - 08/07/2011 :  01:09:30  Show Profile  Visit jcelko's Homepage  Reply with Quote
The short answer is "use a cursor"

The RIGHT answer is NEVER use a cursor. SQL words with entire sets of data at one time, not like mag tapes and record at time processing. You need to study RDBMS for about a year before you post again.

--CELKO--
Books in Celko Series for Morgan-Kaufmann Publishing
Analytics and OLAP in SQL
Data and Databases: Concepts in Practice
Data, Measurements and Standards in SQL
SQL for Smarties
SQL Programming Style
SQL Puzzles and Answers
Thinking in Sets
Trees and Hierarchies in SQL
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russell
Pyro-ma-ni-yak

USA
5072 Posts
Posted - 08/07/2011 :  11:09:24  Show Profile  Visit russell's Homepage  Reply with Quote
Ken, please ignore the rude outburst above.

Of course feel free to post when you have questions.
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latent_ken
Starting Member

10 Posts
Posted - 08/16/2011 :  12:10:46  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
Thank you for all the help. I am trying to get it done without looping. The other thread listed above is related to this one so i will ask questions there.
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