How to Use STRING_AGG() for Concatenating Rows into a Single Column in SQL Server

String interpolation, introduced in C# 6.0, provides a more readable and concise way to format strings compared to traditional concatenation (+) or string.Format(). Instead of manually inserting variables or placeholders, you can use the $ symbol before a string to directly embed expressions inside brackets.

string name = "Walt";
string job = 'Software Engineer';

string message = $"Hello, my name is {name} and I am a {job}";
Console.WriteLine(message);

This would produce the final output of:

Hello, my name is Walt and I am a Software Engineer

String interpolation can also be chained together into a multiline string (@) for even cleaner more concise results:

string name = "Walt";
string html = $@"
    <div>
        <h1>Welcome, {name}!</h1>
    </div>";

In C#, you can format an integer with commas (thousands separator) using ToString with a format specifier.

int number = 1234567;
string formattedNumber = number.ToString("N0"); // "1,234,567"
Console.WriteLine(formattedNumber);

Explanation:

"N0": The "N" format specifier stands for Number, and "0" means no decimal places. The output depends on the culture settings, so in regions where , is the decimal separator, you might get 1.234.567.

Alternative:

You can also specify culture explicitly if you need a specific format:

using System.Globalization;

int number = 1234567;
string formattedNumber = number.ToString("N0", CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);
Console.WriteLine(formattedNumber); // "1,234,567"

When working with SQL Server, you may often need to count the number of unique values in a specific column. This is useful for analyzing data, detecting duplicates, and understanding dataset distributions.

Using COUNT(DISTINCT column_name)

To count the number of unique values in a column, SQL Server provides the COUNT(DISTINCT column_name) function. Here’s a simple example:

SELECT COUNT(DISTINCT column_name) AS distinct_count
FROM table_name;

This query will return the number of unique values in column_name.

Counting Distinct Values Across Multiple Columns

If you need to count distinct combinations of multiple columns, you can use a subquery:

SELECT COUNT(*) AS distinct_count
FROM (SELECT DISTINCT column1, column2 FROM table_name) AS subquery;

This approach ensures that only unique pairs of column1 and column2 are counted.

Why Use COUNT DISTINCT?

• Helps in identifying unique entries in a dataset.
• Useful for reporting and analytics.
• Efficient way to check for duplicates.

By leveraging COUNT(DISTINCT column_name), you can efficiently analyze your database and extract meaningful insights. Happy querying!